Szondi Test

Interpretation and Graphological Indicators1[1][1]

By
Arthur C. Johnston, PhD
2006
by Arthur C. Johnston

An Introduction to Szondi, Achtnich, and Occupations

Lipot Szondi: A Short Biography

Lipot Szondi was not a psychiatrist or psychoanalyst, despite his intense interest and
work in these areas. He was an internist, specifically an endocrinologist. But
psychopathology and psychology were his side interests. From 1927 to 1941, Szondi was in
charge of a psychology laboratory at the University of Budapest under the supervision of a
very liberal director. Here, Szondi began his genealogical research, which resulted ultimately
in the Szondi Test.
His original inspirations for his genealogical investigations were a dream and his
interest in Fyodor Dostoevskys work and life. Dostoevsky, the Russian novelist in the 19th
Century, was an epileptic who had epileptics and murders in his family tree. His novel The
Idiot is about a priest who is an epileptic and becomes involved with a murderer. The
Brothers Karamazov has an epileptic son kill his father and another son who is a priest. The
Epileptic Drive Circle has epileptics, murderers, and priests.
Sigmund Freud believed in drives but always kept to pairs of drives such as love and
aggression or ego and id and never wanted to study or create a systematic analysis of human
drives. Szondi created the four drives based on his insights and the psychiatric and
psychoanalytic knowledge of his time.
In 1941, Szondi was driven out of the University of Budapest by the pro-Nazi
government because he was a Jew. In 1944, Szondi was deported to Bergen-Belsen

1[1][1]
with omission of all graphological materials that appeared in the 2001 edition.
Included are:
Extracts from Martin Achtnichs book Der Berufsbilder-Test [Occupation Picture-
Test], 1979
Extracts from Lipot Szondi books, both translated by Arthur C. Johnston
Extracts from Susan Deris book Introduction to the Szondi Test: Theory and Practice,
1949
and frontpiece Illustrations of Different Drive Vectors extracted from
Lipot Szondi, Ulrich Moser, and Marvin W. Webb, The Szondi Test: in Diagnosis,
Prognosis, and Treatment, 1959
concentration camp. And in 1945, he ended up in Switzerland and eventually settled in
Zurich. Here he started his private practice as a psychoanalyst.
In 1944, he published Schicksalsanalyse (in German), his book on genealogical work
and the drives. The title of the book means Fate Analysis. In this book he introduced the
concept of the latent genes. Mendels pea experiments illustrate this: a wrinkled pea has a
latent gene of a smooth pea, and vice versa. Two latent genes will produce an outward
characteristic, but if only one latent gene is present, the dominant gene will determine the
characteristic. These latent genes, according to Szondi, are not without effects however. They
represent our family ancestors and can become our future ones. They belong to the realm of
the unknown, the unconscious. Szondi called this area the Familial Unconscious, which has
all our latent ancestors. Szondi adds this Familial Unconscious to Freuds Personal
Unconscious and to Carl Jungs Collective Unconscious.
How do these latent genes affect a person? Szondi concludes that these latent genes
determine our choices: choice of friends, lovers, forms of illnesses (both physical and mental),
jobs, interests, sports, hobbies, and even our form of death in some cases. All this occurs
through genotropism, the like choosing the like. Trope means to lean toward. Birds of a
feather flock together, so to speak. The latent genes through the choices we make determine
our fate; thus, this is determinism. But the ego has a say in all this and can make conscious
choices that give us freedom.
In 1947, Szondi published Experimentelle Triebdiagnostik [Experimental Drive
Diagnostic]. Since it was time consuming and very difficult to trace the family tree to see all
the influences of the latent genes, Szondi created the Szondi test as a quick way to see what
choices, projected from the Familial Unconscious, were working in a persons life. This book
in 1947 gave the interpretations for the Szondi test. This test consists of six sets of eight
pictures of the extreme manifestations of the different drive needs that are present in humans.
These are the passive homosexual, the sadist, the epileptic in the control stage, the hysteric,
the catatonic, the paranoid, the depressive of the manicdepressive, and the manic of the
manic-depressive. We all have the same drives as these extremes but in different quantities
and combinations.
In the Fifties, hundreds of publications on Szondis work were published in English
and other languages in Europe and the East. Some were enthusiastic; others destructive. All
projective tests and depth psychologies have difficulty being accepted; the Szondi test was no
exception.
However, Szondis genealogical basis for his work was not accepted by professionals
in that field. And since Szondis drive circles and ideas covered the professional areas of
Freudian psychoanalysis, Jungs Analytical Psychology, Adlers psychology, among others,
and since Szondi was not a member of any of these groups, he had difficulty being accepted
by them. Even today, some of the users of his test, ideas, and theories reject the genealogical
part of his work. Others do not.
In Zurich, Szondi found new disciples. He published many more books such as Ich-
Analyse [Ego Analysis] in 1956. See Resources at the back of this booklet.
In 1969, Szondi established the Szondi Institute, which is still in operation. Szondi
was awarded Honorary Doctor from the two Universities of Louvain (1969) and Paris (1975).
The University of Louvain is a center of research in Szondis work and psychoanalysis.
In 1979, Martin Achtnich published his Der Berufsbilder-Test [The Occupations
Picture Test], still used today, which has Szondis eight needs for selecting ones occupation.
This test consists of 96 pictures [one set for men and one for women]. Each picture is of a
person in an occupational setting. For example, a reporter interviewing someone. The Testee
chooses the pictures he or likes, those that are disliked, and those that are indifferent to him.
Each picture represents one of Szondis eight needs. Thus, a profile of the Testees drive
profile is obtained. Since ones needs choose the area of work, then a recommendation can be
made for possible occupations. The test manual gives wonderful insights into the practical
workings of the eight needs in ones everyday life.
The web site for The Szondi Forum [www.szondiforum.org] under the guidance of
Leo Berlips shows the countries and people that have an intense interest in Szondis Test and
his ideas. There are active groups in France, Poland, Russia, Lithuania, and Japan among
others.
The books on graphology and Szondi works are flourishing. And theres a growing
interest in the United States among graphologists about his work.
Many academics and professionals in psychoanalysis and psychiatry often shy away
from Szondis work because of the disputes over his work and its validity and because his
work crosses so many different fields. No one field can claim him as one of theirs. Szondi is
describing the human condition in a universal way.

Szondis Thinking behind the Test

Szondi believes there are three kinds of unconscious: the Personal Unconscious,
identified and explored by Sigmund Freud, Carl Jungs Collective Unconscious, which
explores the symbols, myths, and patterns of thought and actions that belong to everyone
universally, and Szondis own Familial Unconscious, which is composed of the genetic
ancestors within each of us. The Personal Unconscious produces symptoms; the Collective
Unconscious symbols; and the Familial Unconscious choice.
Our genes from our two parents determine who we are. If both parents contribute
the same gene to an offspring, then the inheritor will have this characteristic. Brown eyes
would be an example: both parents have the gene that produces brown eyes. However, a
child may have different colored eyes but be a carrier of the brown eye gene from one parent.
The brown eye gene is therefore latent and can become dominant if later the offspring mates
with a carrier of the brown eye gene and both brown eye genes are passed from each parent.
Szondi affirms that these latent genes are not powerless. He believes that these latent
genes determine ones choices of loved ones, jobs, forms of illness and even death, character
traits, intellectual interests, and sports. And much more.
How is this so? Szondi believes that when we are attracted to a person, we do so
because we both are conductors of some latent ancestor. Lets say that in ones father was a
manifest epileptic, but ones mother was not. One of the children could become a carrier of
the epileptic genethus be a latent epilepticand consequently would not be a manifest
epileptic. If this conductor of the latent epileptic gene met another person who was also a
carrier of the latent epileptic gene, they would both feel an affinity for each other, for both
would, in a sense, belong to the same family circle of epileptics. Of course, the conductor of
the latent epileptic gene would be attracted to a manifest epileptic.
Szondi calls this attraction force genotropism.
Another example: suppose a person descends from a schizophrenic father and a
healthy mother. Since there are not passed two dominant genes representing schizophrenia,
the descendant does not manifest any schizophrenic disorder. However, this latent
schizophrenic gene would determine ones choices in love, jobs, interests, activities, and other
phases of ones life. This is the SchicksalFatepart of Szondis thinking. The other part of
his thinking is that the ego has some freedom in choosing what will be acceptable or not.
Freedom and Fate are two sides of the same coin.
It is important to realize that just because one chooses a picture of a mentally ill
person such as a depressive does not mean that one is a manifest depressive. The genes
represent drives and more specifically needs that must be satisfied. And there are many ways
a need can be satisfied and thus relieve the tension. Ulrich Moser in The Szondi Test in
Diagnosis, Prognosis and Treatment lists the possible ways the sadism (s) need may be
satiated:
native satiation: sadism, perversion
normal satiation: activity, masculine behavior of varying degrees
sublimation: that is, struggle for humane goals
drive disorder: neurosis, psychosis: defense against aggression
genotropic satiation: choice of a sadistic partner (libidotropism)
criminal satiation: slaying by means of a hatchet, knife, etc.
character formation through introjection (k+): being hard-hearted, for
example
occupations: slaughter, soldier, butcher, sculpturer, hunter, wrestler, boxer.
The charts on each Drive, showing the two opposing needs, are divided so that one
can see how the needs are satiated. For example, the Phylogenetic, animalistic, Psychic
Characteristics, Pathologic, extreme, and negative manifestations [including drive
disorders, delinquency, suicide], Physiologic, normal socialized manifestations [including
Drive symptoms, maturity, socialization, character, occupation, professional field, and
Socially Positive manifestations on a higher level [including Sublimation and occupations.]
When one looks at the results of the Szondi Test, one cannot immediately know how
a particular need is being satisfied. Only by studying the company each need keeps can one
determine the possible ways a need is being satisfied. One test is not sufficient to give an
adequate picture of ones needs; for this reason, ten tests are the standard number given over
a period of weeks.
Szondi in the same book that Ulrich Moser appears gives some clear examples about
how one satisfies ones needs in socially acceptable ways. He notes that descendants of
mentally disordered persons become the most capable and natural psychiatrists or
psychiatric nurses. Descendants of querulents (willful litigants)the paranoia area
unconsciously choose occupations such as district attorney and judge. Szondi also cites the
situation where there was a criminal in the persons family, and this person became a prison
guard. Most interestingly, Szondi cited the situation where two identical twins were
separated and one became a criminal and one a prison guard.
Fundamental to all of Szondis thinking is the idea of oppositesor schisms. The
need h opposes s; h+, h-; s+, s-; h+ s-, h- s+, and many other possible oppositions within the
drive itself. The negative, positive, ambivalent, and zero choices initially given make up the
foreground drive picture, which is closest to consciousness. Szondi, however, creates a
theoretical opposite to this initial test result and calls this the background drive picture. This
represents a deeper layer of the familial unconscious. It is a matter of opposites: one cannot
have light without darkness, good without evil, Christ without the Devil, masochism without
sadism.
Under certain conditions, the background drive picturereally the drive of a
potential fate or past family membercan come to the fore and thus switch positions with the
foreground. A mild mannered person, for example, under the influence of alcohol or drugs
can become belligerent. An extremely shy person by the excessive shyness calls attention to
herself or himself, for in the background of the shy person is the show-off.
Ulrich Moser in his chapter of the book on Szondi gives some interesting insights on
the operation of the foreground and background drive pictures, which he calls the
predecessor and successor. He believes that the foreground [predecessor] represents the
needs that have been repressed in the personal unconscious and thus have been internalized
as reaction formations, character elements, and symptoms. The foreground also greatly
determines our dreams and character.
The background, however, has these effects. One, it adds an emotional coloration to
the foreground. For example, the passive person (s-) however in this very passivity is
demanding and thus has a distinct aggressive nuance (s+). The background has a great
influence on the symptoms chosen.
The background [or successor] expresses itself in choosing persons in our lives. We
may often choose persons who have the same drive structure in their foreground, which is
our own background. This often happens in choice of occupations: the background finds
satisfaction in an occupation. For example an apparently good person becomes a policeman
and spends his life chasing criminals, who represent the policemans own criminal
background drive system. The fireman working for the good of society to stop the
pyromaniacs of this world can satisfy his own background strivings to set fires. Szondi
always is stressing that the only difference between the abnormal and the normal is a matter
of quantity, not quality.
One final opposition among many is that of the middle two drives [Paroxysmal and
Schizophrenic, or Ego] and the peripheral drives Sexual and Contact. The Paroxysmal is the
realm of the Superego; thus, the middle represents the Superego and Ego defending against
the drive perils represented by the border drives Sexual and Contact [anal and oral] and its
own dangers created within itself.
Szondi calls the middle the censorial system since it is concerned with the
individuals system of values, his attitudes, and his orientation toward life. And this area
makes the decisions that will determine ones behavior:
e = the ethical censor [the internal censor of conscience]
hy = the moral censor [the adapting to societys views of morality]
k = the censor of reality
p = the censor of ideals.
The ethical and moral issues belong to the realm of the superego.
A final opposition is that of Dur-Moll. These German words in Szondis sense means
masculine (Dur) and feminine (Moll). As you will see the Sexual Drive contains the h
representing the feminineand the sstanding for the masculine. All the eight needs,
however, are classified as belonging to the masculine and feminine.
The masculine needs are h-, s+, e-, hy+, k+/- and +, p 0, d+, and m-.
The feminine needs are h+, s-, e+, hy-, k0, p +/- and +, d-, and m+.

The Szondi Test

[See Susan Deris book Introduction to the Szondi Test: Theory and Practice for greater
details.]

The Szondi Test is a projective test. The purpose of the Szondi Test is to reflect the
personality as a functioning dynamic whole. The test is dynamic because it shows the drive
needs of a person, which are constantly undergoing changes. For example, an Epileptic goes
through a stage of rising tension, explosive discharge, and peaceful state; the Szondi Test if
given in each stage would reflect the changing tensions of the drive needs.
The eight pictures of each set represent the drive needs [factors] and their degree of
tension. These needs act as the driving forces in a person in that one performs certain acts
and chooses or avoids certain objects or persons. These objects are chosen or avoided to
reduce the tension caused by the unreleased need. The specific type of activity or goal objects
will be determined by the particular drive need.
The eight needs, or factors, represented by the extreme states of the hermaphrodite
[or bisexual] who is generally labeled as a homosexual2[2][2], sadist, epileptic, hysteric,

Jean Mlon in his Course on Szondi pointed out that the pictures depicting
2[2][2]

homosexuality are really those of hermaphrodites [bisexuals]. In other works of

Szondi,heclearlyrepresentstheseindividualsashermaphrodites[bisexuals].
catatonic, paranoid, depressive, and manic correspond to the eight need systems in the
person taking the test. The eight types of mental and emotional diseases and perversions
represent certain psychological needs in extreme form which are present to some degree in
every person. A normal person or an abnormal one can choose from the pictures; the
quantity of positive and negative choices and the resulting patterns can indicate the state of
either one.
The person taking the test chooses pictures from the factor, or need, that corresponds
to his own need that is in tension. The greater the number of pictures chosen from one factor
[both likes and dislikes], the greater the tension of this drive need in the person. These needs
with the greatest number of choices represent the underlying causes of ones manifest
behavior.
On the other hand, the lack of choices in a certain factor means that the
corresponding need is not in a state of tension. This can be true because of constitutional
weakness of the drive need or because the need is lived out in some adequate activity. This is
an open reaction. There is the least resistance to the need being lived out. That is why
observed symptoms and manifest behavior can be interpreted on the basis of these open or
drained reactions. However, the quality of these behaviors can be psychotic, neurotic,
antisocial, or normal. A sadist may live out his aggressive need by actually harming others;
whereas, a surgeon may use the same aggression to help others.
The underlying psychodynamic causes of ones observable behaviorshown by the
open responsesis indicated by the loaded factors indicated by the like and dislike choices.
This is similar to the case of the latent and dominant genes: the choices are determined by the
latenthiddengenes and the dominant geneshere the open responsesdetermine the
manifest behavior. Of course, the ego has a part in these choices.
A positive response for pictures representing a certain factor, or need, indicates a
conscious or unconscious identification with the motivational forces as depicted by the
photographs of the particular need.
A negative response indicates the existence of a counter-identification with the
psychological processes of the stimulating pictures. We are not referring to repression when
citing a negative response since this can be a conscious choice, and repression only works
unconsciously.
An ambivalent reaction means that both a counter-identification and identification
are present. There is some self-control acting in this indecisive situation about the discharge
of tension in actual activities. Therefore, these are subjective internal symptoms as seen, for
example, in compulsives and hypochondriacs. The objective symptoms are represented by
the open reactions.
A fundamental aspect of the final total at the end of the Scoring Sheet is the foreground and
background ego. The foreground ego is the profile first obtained on the Scoring Sheet: for example: h-
s+ e- hy+ k+/- p0 d+ m-. However, behind this ego possible fate is another one: the background ego,
which is the reverse of the previous one: h+ s- e+ hy- k 0 p +/- d- m+. The foreground ego has a male
sexual drive, a Caindo evilParoxysmal drive, a compulsive masculine material ego, and an
unfaithful object relationship in the Contact Vector. Under certain circumstances, his background ego
could appearas under the influence of alcohol, for example: a female sexual drive, an Ablea do-
gooder, a feminine ego, and a faithful object relationship.

The Sexual Drive

I. The Sexual Vector [Drive] (S):

[See Susan Deris book Introduction to the Szondi Test: Theory and Practice for
greater details.]
 h factor (represented by pictures of hermaphrodites [bisexuals] but generally labeled
as passive homosexuals) corresponding to the need for passive tenderness and
yieldingness: bindng and being one in love [Achtnich: Femininity, Softness]

s factor (represented by pictures of sadists) which corresponds to the need for

physical activity and aggressive manipulation of objects: immediate release from and
separation [Achtnich: Body Power, Coldness, Hardness].

What is a Vector? It is a force that has both magnitude and direction. In science, a vector
describes what happens when two forces act on a body [in this case the Vector] and influence
its direction:

h (homosexuality)
is a factor that goes in a different direction from s
(sadism).

S (The Sexual Vector, or Drive) is a common goal

for both needs and the result of the two active
forces (h and s).

s Vector

s (sadism) is a factor that goes in a different direction

from the h factor.
The h+ Factor
(h = homosexual)
(Achtnich: Femininity, Softness)

Martin Achtnich in his instruction book for Der Berufsbilder-Test [The Occupations
Pictures Test] renames this factor Femininity, Giving in, Feeling, Softness, and Touch needs.
He changed the name to avoid the connotations of illness or perversion and to make the need
more acceptable to the public. Achtnich and Szondi both made clear that the choice of these
pictures does not mean that one is a bisexual or homosexual. This and all Szondi needs are
universal and thus present in everyone.

This h need in the sexual drive (or vector) represents the tender yielding part of
sexuality and relationships. This is the need that represents the feminine as classically
viewed. A key point is that it contains little or no motor energy. The need is for sensual
contact through the sense of touch. It is the opposite of the s [sadism] need, where grabbing
and manipulating a physical object is primary; in the h plus case, there are no active moves of
this kind. The occupation of hair dresser, which involves touching the client, represents a
social expression of this need. On a higher level, a physical therapist, who must use ones
hands to work on a patient, exhibits this need.

Hermaphrodites [bisexuals], those represented in the Szondi test, are an extreme

expression of this ever- present human need. These males who are seeking love with persons
of their own sex are primarily looking for tender love, not the actual intercourse. They seek
the kind of love given by their mother. This is the love that is passive longing without any
physical activity to secure the one loved.
In his later analysis of this need, Szondi labeled it Eros after the Greek god of love.
He wrote:

There is no binding in the living world without factor h. It is the

most powerful among the bindings. It is the receiver and giver in
love and tenderness. It is the strongest power, which holds all
together, what in the world lives and loves. Factor h is consequently
the Eros radical, the root of love and tenderness and the basis of
attraction and binding. It is as well the creator of individual
personal love (h+) and also that of love of humanity (h-). Factor h is
also not only one of the two builtup factors of sexuality. It is the
factor of each binding of human to human in sex and love, in body
and spirit.

When one chooses h plus, this person accepts and identifies with this need for
sensual longing that is unrelated to any active moves toward satisfaction. This is a feminine
identification and means specifically a non-genital need for love and caressing in an infantile
sense of mother and child.
Extreme frustration of this need as a child can lead to antisocial and psychotic
behavior. Also individuals who do not choose higher sublimated work such as
dermatologists and gynecologists (dealing with touching and the feminine) or cultural
activities as lyric poets (expressing personal feelings) or musicians (expressing feelings and
touching musical instruments like a banjo) often choose work that involves personal care of
others and receiving personal affection in return.

Occupations: The Royal Road to Szondi Needs, or Factors

It would be great if you could have some verification about the Szondi factors.
You will not have any difficulty getting someone to tell you his or her occupation or
interests. Once you have this information, you have great insight into the leading need of the
person. Sigmund Freud said that dreams are the royal road to the unconscious. Occupations
and interests are the royal road to the Szondi factors, or needs.
For instance, if you are told that the person runs a hat store, then you know that the
h+ factor, or need, is a prominent one and is being socialized in this occupation. Whats the
connection between selling hats and the h+ need? One of the ways someone can live out the
h+ need for touching is to touch soft materials, clothing, and textiles. The s+ need, on the
other hand, causes one to want to deal with hard materials like steel, iron, or bronze.

Occupations Satisfying the h Need

In his book Schicksalsanalyse: Wahl in Lieb, Freudschaft, Beruf, Krankheit und Tod
[Fate Analysis: Choice in Love, Friendship, Occupation, Illness and Death], Szondi establishes
that there are four parts involved in ones choice of an occupation:
 The activity, or function,
The means or working tool,
The occupation or professional object/material/goal
The place.
For instance: a physical therapists activities are to touch, to feel (something), to stoke,
to massage, to have to do with the naked body [in some cases] or, in others, to bath or to wash
someone; the means is the hand or finger; the professional object is the human body,
sometimes naked; the place is a warm room.
In his Der Berufsbilder-Test [Occupations Pictures Test] manual, Martin Achtnich
indicates that each choice of an occupation or job involves two needs: the first need is primary
and the second is subordinate but important too. There can be more than two needs involved
in ones choice of an occupation, but Achtnich concentrates on the two most important ones.
In the case of a physical therapist, the primary need is h+ [in Achtnichs analysis, the
Feminine, Softness need], and the secondary need is e+ [Szondis Epileptic Circle of the Abel
character; Achtnich calls this the social need].

The Activity, or function, presented by Achtnich offers quick insights into the
working of a need.

The functions for h+ [femininity, softness] are:

[1] to touch, to feel (something), to stroke, to massage, to have to do with the naked body
(masseur, physical therapist, nurse, musician of string and plucking instruments);
[2] to bath or to wash (jobs concerning body hygiene);
[3] to work on someones hair, to put scent or perfume on someone (hair stylist,
beautician);
[4] to serve or to wait on (serving jobs in general);
[5] to do handwork with soft fabrics and materials, clothing, or textiles (tailors, show
window decorator, florist, textile decorator);
[6] to be full of feelings, to sacrifice, to be full of love, to behave lyrically toward the
occupational object (musician, lyric professions which allow one to express his or her
feelings).
[7] to do activities which appeal directly or indirectly to the erotic (dancer, ballet master,
film director, model photographer, art and poets concerned with eroticism, lyric
poet, dermatologist, sexual researcher, sexual psychologist);
[8] or to sell articles involving number one, two, three, five, or seven (textile and fashion
salespersons, hair and textiles salespersons).

Just knowing these eight functions, or activities, greatly helps to identify the h+ need
in different occupations and jobs.
For number one function, or activity [to touch or to feel someone], the means or
working tool is the hand or finger; the occupational object, the human body, skin, fur, textiles,
soft and warm materials even including soft woods, musical sting instruments; the places are
warm rooms, places with an intimate atmosphere, hospitals; the occupations are masseur,
physical therapist, pedicurist, midwife, nurse, cosmetologist, pastry cook [soft material
involved], musician [string and plucking instruments].
Remember, however, that there is a secondary need, and sometimes more, in each
occupation. For instance, musical interests express the p need as well as the h+ need.
Function number four above [to serve or to wait on] has as its means or work tool:
turning toward customers and the served as a subordinate; the occupation object: guest,
customer, the served, the looked-after; the place: fashion and wash establishments, having
guests as a trade business; the occupations: service industry in the widest sense. The
waitress, waiter, and hotel manager fit these categories.

The h- Factor
(h = homosexual)
(Achtnich: Femininity, Softness)

Those who indicate that they dislike the pictures of hermaphrodites [bisexuals] when
taking the Szondi test are showing a counter-identification with whatever the h need
expresses. Susan Deri in her book Introduction to the Szondi Test: Theory and Practice states
that this means that these persons do not want to accept this need for personal tender
affection. However, that does not mean that the need is lacking. The total number of positive
or negative responses to a need indicates the power of this need in ones drive life. If all six
choices were negative, the need would be extremely powerful. What could be present is a
reaction formationa reversal of an action. For example, because of insecurity in the sexual
area, one could overemphasize the sadism part of sexuality: the weak man who hides his
weakness through the bluff and bluster of being macho.
The h minus moves from the personal love of h plus to the love of humanity. Thus,
those choosing h minus identify themselves with this more abstract form of affection: love of
humanity. These people often are cool in interpersonal relations but show warm social or
artistic attitudes. For example, some intellectuals tend to sublimate their need for tender
personal love into various forms of humanistic and culturally desirable activities.
Women who choose h minus may have sexual difficulties since h minus is an active
repression of the h plus, which is feminine. Thus the women are choosing a masculine
identification since normal men choose h minus with s plus and normal women choose h plus
and s minus. Here we are discussing the native living out of a need; there are many ways for
a need to be lived out.
Those who have h minus will express their needs genotropically, that is, through
choice of lovers, friends, jobs, interests, sports, illnesses, and even forms of death. The
socialized, not native, form of the h need will be chosen.

Interpretation of the Negative Reaction

According to Achtnich

The turning away from signifies an important strong measure of interest and
attraction as that which lets us be indifferent or what we are not able to decide. The defense
becomes affectively and emotionally valued. The question arises: What does the testee
defend with a revealed minus factor?

The Denied Factor the native, original the defense directed the working out of
Factor need against the defense is
a reaction formation
-W [h-] Femininity Touching and ones own weakness, insecurity in the
feeling needs latent homosexuality sexual area;
overemphasis of
K [muscle power: s+]
or SE
[energy-minded;
Cain: e-]

Why does the testee as noted deny exactly these factors? The answer follows:
a. a. a. Either the testee does not have this need in general; that is, there is an absence of
a relationship to this factor,
b. b. b. Or simply this need is so inherently strong that it means a danger to the testee,
c. c. c. Or this need in the course of education and development learned this kind of
defense that there can be no more development. The testee has accepted this manner of
defense in his environment against this need and made it his own defense behavior. This
mechanism plays a striking role in the building of ones conscience and in the formation
of ones social behavior.

Which meaning now does the denied, respectively not chosen factors for the
occupation choice? Can one assume that the testee will simply have noting to with the
denied factor? This can be the situation, but it is not always so: namely not when the same
denied primary factor appears as a positive secondary factor. This phenomenon is known as
Reversion.

The Reversion

Reversion appears in the test as follows:

A factor is denied as a primary factor but appears in the ranking succession of
secondary factors in the front or not very far from it. This means that the denied factor seeks
after an indirect occupation substitute satisfaction. What are now the indirect substitute
satisfactions of a denied need? The need can be no more directed along the path of the
function activity. It becomes transformed therein into interest in the object.
The denied factors appear also in the test in two ways:
[1] complete defense: in the test in the front of the rank of negative primary factors
and simultaneously at the front of the ranking of the negative secondary factors.
[2] reversion: in the test at the end of the raking of the positive primary factors but
simultaneously at the front (or very close to it) in the rank of positive secondary
factors.
Accordingly, the minus choices have two aspects: the complete defense against a
factor and the reversion.
A reversion is always a discrepancy between the foreground and hinterground,
which means the testee is neurotic in relationship to this need: the original need is repressed
and seeks now a vent for itself. The reversion leads to an indirect satisfaction of the need in
which a transformation of the native need into an occupation interest occurs. The direct need
satisfaction represents no unconditional primitive but indirectly a higher occupation
solution. The indirect satisfaction not compulsively to a spiritualization, which still in the
first case depends if understanding and spirit are present. It is however the privilege of
spiritual men that this possibility stands open to unstructure [umzustrukturieren] his needs
and to put them into and integrate them into a spiritual connection. In this case, the factors S
(social minded), Z (aesthetic needs), V (understanding/thinking), and G (spirit) come to
particular significance, which are the bearer factors of these unstructured and socialization
tendencies. It also lets itself be designated as the kernel factors of the personality.

In the next tables are the complete defense and the reversion for the h factor.

Minus Complete defense Reversion

Factor
 -W [h-] Denial of any bodily touching. Loving turning toward the partner
Lovelessness. Contact disturbance. without coming into any bodily
contact with him or her (Example: a
teachers behavior toward a student)

The h 0 Factor
(h = homosexual; 0 = open or drained)

Anytime there is a zero number or only one or one each of a like and dislike for a
need, this indicates that the need for being the passive receiver of love is being lived out. The
result is a lack of tension. Small children and infantile adults who are loved and pampered as
a child would supply an open h factor. This could occur also in the native living out of the
need by impotent men and overt homosexuality. If the homosexual is a female, then this is a
passive type who has a strong attachment to a mother figure and then attaches herself
submissively and dependently to a mother figure.
The open h can also appear temporarily after sexual intercourse or masturbation.
On a higher cultural level, this open h can appear in those who can sublimate
intellectually without being disturbed by sexual tension.
Ultimately, there is no real difference between a loaded factor (including both likes
and dislikes) and an open factor. One can change into the other, and both indicate the
presence of the need, or factor, in ones life. Only in those cases where the open factor does
not change is indicated that this is a constitutional weakness.
A loaded factor--four to six choices, either likes or dislikes--often precedes an open
reaction. The loaded factor also works genotropically and thus determines ones choices of
lovers, friends, interests, sports, occupations, illnesses, and, sometimes, forms of death.
Szondi writes, An understanding of the dynamics underlying these two extreme reaction
types reveals that there is no qualitative difference between open and loaded reactions. An
open reaction does not mean that the particular drive tendencies are nonexistent in the
individuals makeup; it means merely that a previously loaded drive tendency has
diminished in dynamic force as a result of discharge. This explains the tendency of certain
subjects to produce an ambivalent loaded reaction in the first test and an open reaction in the
second or vice versa. Drive tendencies are in a dynamic process, subject to change and
variation and are not absolute stable psychic factors.

The s Factor
(s = sadism)
(Achtnich: Body Power [Kraft (K) in German = Power] Strength; Hardness)
[See Susan Deris book and Szondi, Moser, and Webbs book for more information.]

The s+ Factor
(s = sadism)

The s need, or factor, is the active side of sexuality. This need refers to muscular
energy and the motor power to manipulate objects in ones environment. Overall, this means
activity in general. The extreme example of this is the sadist, who acts out his or her
aggression in native form. Motor activity and aggression go together here. Szondi called this
side of the sexual vector Thanatos [Death and destruction], the opposite of Eros, the god of
love.
The s need corresponds to the need to intrude, to be strong, and to be hard. This is
the active masculine aspect of sexuality.
 Those who indicate that they like the sadists pictures are identifying themselves with
this need for activity directed outward toward objects. The need is for a high degree of
physical activity and for uninhibited aggression. A socialized version of this need is a boxer
[who also has an exhibitionist side]. He takes out his aggression and desire for activity upon
an opponent.
Susan Deri in her book relates s plus to concrete behavior and s minus to wanting to
deal with abstract behavior: dealing with symbols and words.
This s plus is a masculine reaction, and in sexuality this means that the person
actively goes after his object, needing to be the initiator in every aspect of the relationship.
The focus of the s plus need is outward and thus the need to fight reality rather than to
withdraw. Impulsive characters and criminals, more extreme forms, often have the s plus
reaction.
The s plus is characteristic for children and for those who are not engaged in
intellectual work. When an intellectual or cultured person chooses s plus, one will expect lots
of aggression behind the persons causes and ideas, and the interest will be in real things.
Writers rarely have the s plus choices, but sculpturers do because they use tools to work on
hard stone or metal, something real. Writers, on the other hand, manipulate purely symbolic
materials (musical tones or words).
The s plus in extreme cases will show up in antisocial behavior. Women who choose
s plus, the masculine side of sexuality, can have problems in the sexual area or will sublimate
in some cultural or social way.

Occupations Satisfying the s Need

The functions, or activities, represented by Achtnich are body power [strength,

force] and hardness:
1] to hit, to hammer, to chisel, to nail, to rivet, to carve, to stick, to bore, to mill, to saw,
to scrape, to sharpen, to separate, to cut off, to penetrate, to pierce (one working on
machines, building-site fitter, plumber, driller, woodworker with hard wood,
forester, carpenter)
[2] to lift loads, to bear loads or weights (transportation worker, hauler of heavy loads)
[3] to break, to destroy (construction worker, miner, demolition worker)
[4] to hack, to shovel, to use a pick (street cleaner, helper in farming, and railroad
building workers)
[5] to kill, to shoot (butcher, soldier, hunter)
[6] to box, to pull up, to fight, to wrestle, to fence (a boxer, wrestler, fencer, javelin
thrower)
[7] to tame animals, to fetter, to overpower, to control (police for criminals, animal
trainer)
[8] to operate (surgeon, physician, dentist)
[9] to use body power (in general) (handwork occupations, work requiring body
strength)
[10] to conquer, to dominate, to attack, to defeat, to push in front, to elbow (positions
which demand an extreme power to push through or to achieve)
[11] to be mentally brutal, to be aggressive, to be destructive, to make extreme noise
(combat and fighting jobs or professions with men or animals)
[12] to be hard in pursuing a definite goal, to carry through harsh measures, thoughtlessly
hard (bailiffs, prison officers, jailers, instructors)

The s- Factor
(s = sadism)
 Those who choose s minus have tension in the need for aggression and activity but
do not accept this need or identify with it. Again, the disliking of a need shows the strength
of the need in the person.
The result is that this energy normally directed outward is turned inward into
intellectual energy. Now, concepts and abstract elements are manipulated instead of concrete
objects in the environment. Susan Deri calls this abstract behavior. There is a low level of
physical activity. The activity now works on an intellectual level. Often, this turning away
from outward aggression can lead one to want to help others.
Those choosing s minus in the face of conflict like to withdraw from any kind of fight
in reality unlike the s plus persons. Little antisocial behavior will be seen in the s minus
person.
The s minus person has more ability to sublimate [to use ones drive for higher social
and cultural purposes] than the average person. The s minus is associated with the feminine,
and thus shows that a person does not identify with physical activity and aggression
associated with the masculine. Many men who are intellectuals and work with concepts and
symbolsnot material objectsgive the s minus choice. Waiters, store clerks, and those who
serve and wait on others, thus taking a subservient role, often select the s minus.
Masochism, depression because of the repressed aggression, difficulties in the sexual
area for men can be present in extreme cases. A passive man, however, can be quite happy
with a dominant woman with s plus choice.

Achtnich: Interpretation of the Negative Reaction s

What does the person defend with a revealed minus factor?

TheDeniedFactor thenative,original thedefensedirected theworkingoutof

Factorneed against thedefenseis
a reaction formation
-K [s-] rough power, aggression inhibition of
Power, Hardness, inconsiderate aggression,
Strength emphasis on e+
(social, helping need;
Abel)

In the next table are the complete defense and the reversion for the K [s+] need.

Minus Complete defense Reversion

Factor
-K [s-] Denial of each bodily activity, in The aggression is turned into an
particular working with ones hands interest (example: research of
criminals, collector of weapons,
interest in war and history of wars)

The s 0 Factor
(s = sadism; 0 = open or drained)
 An open, or zero, response indicates that the need is being lived out in some way;
here that would mean that there are lots of activity or aggression.
People who are constantly involved in many activities and those who sublimate their
aggression in some intellectual or scientific work can give this response. There is no tension
since the need is being satisfied; the s plus would have some tension since the need is not
being totally satisfied.
Criminals often give the open s as well as the s plus.
On a higher cultural level, this open s can appear in those who can sublimate
intellectually without being disturbed by sexual tension.

Sixteen Combinations for the Sexual Vector

[See Szondi, Moser, and Webb book for detailed analyses.]
[Extract from L. Szondi, Experimental Diagnostics of Drives, English translation by Gertrude
Aull]

S1 = + + Healthy sexuality of the average person

S2 = 0 + Activity, sadism, the pious hangman
S3 = + 0 Infantile or senile sexuality with aggressiveness
S4 = 0 - Inactivity, passivity, masochism
S5 = + - Passivity; in the male: goal inversion
S6 = - 0 Active, masculine humanization of sexuality
S7 = - + Partial humanization; in the female: goal inversion
S8 = - - Complete humanization of sexuality
S9 = 0 +/- Childish bisexuality, beginning of civilization of aggression
S10 = + +/- Tendency to sadomasochism
S11 = - +/- Humanization of aggressive tendencies
S12 = +/- + Normal sexuality, beginning socialization
S13 = +/- +/- Complete bisexuality
S14 = +/- 0 Socialization of bisexuality and of aggression
S15 = +/- - Humanization of bisexuality through self-coercive techniques
S16 = 0 0 Infantile sexuality, discharge or abstinence

Some General Observations

s- : intellectual activity, interest in abstract ideas and symbols,

manipulation of concepts, words, and symbols.
versus
s + : physical activity, interest in concrete things and behavior, manipulation
of things and people

We will see a similar contrast with the d factor:

d- : abstract interests and ideals

versus
d+ : concrete behavior and concern with the material
 The following chartand the others forthcoming for each driveis a
compendium of similar charts that appear in Szondis books. Some introductory
remarks are ideas developed by pathoanalysis [a combination of Szondis ideas
minus any reference to genes and chiefly Freuds and Lacans psychoanalytic ideas.

Szondi: Transformation of the Apparent Forms of Drive Factors:

Personality Vicissitudes Related to the Eight Drive Needs

Drive Vectors
S
Sexual Drive
Drive Factors h s
(Homosexual) (Sadism)
Femininity/maternalism Masculinity
The factor (h), the Eros factor, governs any The factor (s) is responsible for the
connection or formation of bonds. It is the destruction of the object bonds. It is the
factor of sensuality, erotication of the body; general actor of the body activity, of the
it expresses the need for tenderness. investment in the muscle system. It
concentrates on the possession of the body
as an object. It is the factor of the world of
perceptions.
Drives Related to: The Relationship to the Body
[The ideas here come The vectors Sexual (s) and Contact (c) reveal the drive movements by which the world
from those of patho- is invested in the most immediate way (in the literal sense of the term, i. e, without
analysis.] mediation). These vectors, known as the peripheral, translate the relation of the subject to
the world, at the same time, as a sexual and as a social being. It concerns the area of object
relations.
The Sexual vector points to the relation with the body. It has to do with the attitudes
of the subject to his/her body, attitudes which become sexual in a strict sense only by
combining them with the components of the other vectors. It is by way of the mediation
of the contact drive by which it will make the connection with the other bodies.
Other Descriptions h+: tendency to personal sensual affection s+: tendency to sadism, aggression, activity.
h-: tendency to collective humanitarian (The tendency to live ones corporeality as
kindness a lure, as passing the proper limits. The
the tendency of the subject to immerse in body is not given to itself but to the
his own body, to indulge in getting domination of what is not itself. It is the
enjoyment from it; in essence the body that imposes itself and dominates,
abandonment to the flesh though sexuality which uses force and rape.)
is still undifferentiated s-: tendency to civilization, generosity,
humility, sacrifice, passivity, masochism
(The body is turned against itself to reject
all capacity to go over the limits. The body
is kept to itself without enjoyment and
ultimately aims as self-destruction.)
Phylogenetic, hermaphroditic love to rob (take by force) and attack need
animalistic
Freudian: Early Bisexual, erotic sadistic-erotic
childhood-pregenital
Partial drives
Psychic [These are also the same psychic [These are also the same psychic
Characteristics characteristics of women.] characteristics of men.]
 Feminine psychic characteristics with men: Masculine psychic characteristics in
(with particular tenderness, passivity women:
consideration of the wish to live out and to feel tenderness masculine violence, activity
reversal of the sexual wish to be commanded, to be overwhelmed, desire to seize
goals, the to be seized, to be conquered power striving
metatropism [the tendency to give into another aggression
man will be a wish to subjugate oneself seek the partner, follow him, grip him, and
woman; the woman take on the role of the succubus besiege him
will be a man] wish to be lead and to be presented with striving after the roll of the incubus
things wish to give, make a present of, to be a
wish after finery in clothes, make up for semen dispenser
sexual purposes wish to adorn the other, to overwhelm with
good-heartedness clothes, etc.
sentimentality hard, obstinate, intelligent man
humility pride, haughtiness
world weariness vanity about facts, self-reliant
unsteadiness, uncertainty when alone rational understanding for things
vanity in relationship to the outer world objectivity
instinctuality exhibit essentials. seeking after the
feeling for things essentials
subjectivity objective manner of speaking and
turning away from the material, the argumentation
essentials uninfluenceable
richness of imagery, symbolic speech, and trust only in oneself
argumentation good orientation possibilities
prone to be influenced ethically strong
timidity In Art: Expressionism
naive trust in another In Literature: epics, satirical
poor orientation, chiefly in space conscious, logical
sense for aesthetics women who maintain men
in Art: Impressionism
In Literature: lyric, tragic, mystic
In thinking: semi-conscious, not logical, not
consistent, not able to draw conclusions
in case of obstacles: fatigue, giving up of
goals
wish to be supported, maintained
(supported men)
I. Pathologic, Hermaphroditism (according to Magnus Sadism
extreme, and Hirschfeld) 1. Pederasty
negative I. Disturbances of sexual differentiation: 2. Sodomy
manifestations: 1. Hermaphroditism genitalis: equal signs 3. Sadomasochism
(a) Drive disorders being present of feminine and masculine 4. Metatropism (reversal of male and
sexual organs in an individual female roles)
2. Hermaphroditism somaticus: androgyny. 5. Fetishism
The individual only has the gland of a sex 6. Active (anal) homosexuality
but both sexual secondary characteristics
(for example, next to the masculine sexual
characteristics are feminine ones)
3. Hermaphoditismus psycho-sexualis:
Pskychicus: Transvestitism:
 a. Homosexuality: reversal of the sexual
object: same sexual object choice
b. Metatropism (being like the opposite
sex): Inversion of the sexual goal. For
example women who practice masculine
aggression (wish to be Incubinatus); men
who will subjugate themselves
(succubinatus). Reversal of aggression, etc.
Basically: men want to be women; women
want to be men.
Inclination to Basedown illness, hyper
thyroidism [hyperthyreosis],
[exophthalmus]
(b) Delinquency 1. Defrauding Sexual murder,
2. Spying Murder with robbery
3. Prostitution (street prostitute)
4. Pandering and procuring (pimp, fancy
man)
(c) Suicide Poison, gun Rope, knife, razor, dagger, ax, hanging,
slitting of vein or neck, Harakiri, etc.
II. Physiologic, 1. Individual affection whose object is one 1. activity, self-preservation: s+
normal socialized specific person, family, religion, group, race, 2. passivity, devotion: s-
manifestations: nation
(1) Drive symptoms 2. Need: femininity, maternalism, passivity,
submissiveness
(2) Maturity, Adult (a) personal love, physical love of (a) Tendency to sadism, aggression, activity
individuals: h+ (s+)
(b) love of mankind: h- (b) Tendency to civilization, generosity,
humility, sacrifice, passivity,
masochism (s-)
(3). (a) Socialization (a) h+: warm, tender: heart character, (a) s+: cold, hard character traits, violent
(b) Character tenderness, motherly, wish to be given, activity, pleasure in attacking and assault,
impulse to dress, finery, make-up; activity impulse, life impulse, undertakings
sentimental, vanity, instinctive, feeling for impulse, pleasure in criticism, obstinacy,
the object, childish, trustful, confident, self-reliance, objectivity, reality sense,
fashion consciousness, feel of things, adaptation to environment,
subjectivity, lyric interest bloodthirstiness, pleasure in destroying,
(b) h-: culture impulse: love of nature and push and drive
mankind (b) s-: devotion, compassion, sacrifice, wish
to give, wish to protect, wish to adorn
another, civilization impulse,
protectiveness,
(4) Occupation, h: occupation: homosexual, hermaphrodite s: occupation: Sadist
Professional field (intersexual)
(a)Chief Drive Need tenderness, need to serve another, to violence, force, control, power strivings,
subjugate oneself, passive femininity masculinity
(b) Chief sense, touch, seeing depth of feeling, muscle feeling
reality perception
(c) Professional own body or the body of another (a) animal, (b) stone, iron, metal, machines,
object earth, wood
(d) (1) Professional (a) ornament articles, decoration (a) original tool: ax, cleaver, sharp hoe,
means (2) (b) clothing: finery
professional activity
(e) Professional bathhouse, beach, seashore, barber shop,
place or location hairdressers, restaurant, public house,
theater, circus, hatters shop, bordello
(f) Occupation male hairdresser, female hairdresser, bath
solutions: employee, servant profession, hotel keeper,
Occupation, waiter, confectioner, cook, baker, washer
Professional field man, butler, employee in clothing business,
Socialization in a dress designer, waiter, hotel manager,
profession, fashion model, lingerie manufacturer,
occupation serving occupations in general, manual
labor, model, dancer, ballet dancer, singer,
performer, artist
Metatropism in Men (who want to be women):
Occupations Occupations in which the wish for costumes
can be satisfied: ladies fashion salon,
laundry, scarf maker (often manufacturer of
ready-made mens clothes)
Fashion designer for womens clothing,
often for mens designer of clothes
Artist occupations: female impersonator,
soprano singer in womens clothing
chisel, hammer, knife, drill, whip
(b) great muscularity
(a) barn, cowshed, butcher block,
zoological gardens, animal breeding place,
arena, forest, mountain, mines
(b) operation room, dissection room
farm and forest worker, animal tamer,
masseur, manicurist, pedicurist,
slaughterer, hangman, mason, miner,
roadworker, driver, wrestler, gym teacher,
butcher, operation nurse, executioner,
stone cutter, sculpturer, carrier, waggoner,
veterinarian, chauffeur, hunter, soldier,
farmer, zoo keeper, surgical nurse,
blacksmith, boxer, athlete, fencer,
policeman, bull-fighter, automobile driver,
occupations involving necessary
mutilations and/or destruction, and
infliction of pain, animal slaughter man
Sadism:
a. work with ball, knife, scissors, shears,
drill, tweezers: butcher, cutler, scissors
user, shears user, laborer, grinder,
manicurist, pedicurist, executioner,
operation nurse
b. work with an ax: wood carver, timber
merchant, forester, carpenter
c. work with pickax: stone cutter, street
worker, grave digger, sewer cleaner as well
as an engineer who supervises such work
d. work with chisel and hammer:
sculpturer (wood or stone), gravestone
maker
e. work with a whip in hand (work with
animals): driver, groom for animals, trainer
of wild beasts, employee in an animal zoo
[in sublimated form: veterinarian, protector
of animals]
f. sport professions: wrestler, boxer,
masseur, rifleman, soldier, etc.
g. handling of machines: chauffeur, tractor
driver, rifle man, soldier, etc.
Women (who want to be men):
Occupations in which one can wear
masculine uniforms: letter carrier (during
wars), guard, conductor, theater aisle guide
in movie houses and theaters, chauffeur,
horse carriage driver
Artist occupations: men impersonator,
animal trainer; singer: alto singer
Dancing occupations: ballet, dance artist
 Dance occupations: ballet, dance artist Sports occupations: gym teacher, fencing
Textile areas: weaver, needlework, master, trainer, coach, swim instructor,
embroidery, carpet maker, clothing store, professional wrestler, boxer, masseur, etc.
fashion ware store, chiefly for women, Manicurist, pedicurist: employee in a
furriers trade, etc. public bathhouse
men and women hairdressers
employee in bath houses, swimming
master, servant, chamber servant, formerly
serving personal, nursemaid, waiter,
boarding house proprietor, hotel keeper
Confectioners shop, seller of confections on
the street or in a stand, cook, licorice maker
Sciences: mathematics, musical science,
gynecologist
Literature: lyric poetry art, sentimental
poetry
spy (with additional paranoid tendencies:
auditory), counterspy
III. Socially Positive 1. Collective affection whose object is all of 1. Collective generosity
manifestations: humanity 2. Collective self-sacrificing
Drive Symptoms 2. Cultural needs 3. Collective humility
3. Humanitarian Ideas 4. Trend toward civilization in general
Sublimation Culture in general, Literature and literary 5. Love of technology in particular
arts in particular, spiritual love of 6. Humane ethics
humanity, a Humanist Technical Civilization (state)
Occupations musician, lyric poet, gynecologist, physician surgeon, pathologist-anatomist, dentist,
for the skin (dermatologists) and for sexual construction engineer, dissector, veterinary
illnesses (sexual pathology) surgeon

The Paroxysmal Drive

II. The Paroxysmal Vector (P): This describes the area of emotional control.
[See Susan Deris book Introduction to the Szondi Test: Theory and Practice
forgreater details.]

e factor (pictures of epileptics in their control stage) describing the subjects way of
dealing with aggressive, hostile emotions (the s factor area)

hy factor (pictures of hysterics) indicating the way a person deals with his tender
emotions (the h factor area)

The e+ Factor
(e = epileptic)
(Achtnich: Social Aspect: SH = Readiness to help;
need to do good, to take responsibility for ones fellow human being,
to help, to heal, and to care for)
[See Susan Deris book, Szondi, Moser, and Webbs book, and web sites for more
information.]
 The epileptic belongs to the Paroxysmal Drive, or Vector [also called Startle or
Surprise Drive]. Paroxysmal means that there is a periodic pattern of the accumulation of
energy that builds to a climax as in a fever and then suddenly discharges. The pictures of the
epileptics in the Szondi Test are those who are in the control stage of epilepsy: the
accumulation and restraint of discharge of energy. The energy being controlled is the
aggressive energy from the sadism need (s+).
Szondi labels the epileptic in this control stage Abel after the brother killed by Cain in
Genesis in the Old Testament of the Bible. Cain exhibits freely the e- need, which is the
rejection of emotional control of the sadism (s+) need. Cain was a murdered out of passion.
Abel and Cain are two sides of the same coin: both feel the same need to accumulate their
aggressive energy and then to suddenly discharge it, often surprising and startling those
around them. Later in his work, Szondi used Moses as the model for the e+ need instead
because Moses was a Cain in his youth and murdered out of anger an Egyptian.
The epileptic fit is the model for this need in the paroxysmal drive.
The basic characteristics for the e+ epileptic in the control stage are being overly good,
helpful, and religious. He or she is greatly concerned about good and evil: ethical matters.
There is however something unauthentic about the goodness and helpfulness since these
qualities may be a reaction formationa reversal of the original desire to harm and even to
kill the other person.
The Paroxysmal Drive is representative of the superego. Particularly in the epileptic
need is the prohibition of Thou shall not kill operative.
The person who chooses e plus identifies himself or herself with the strict need to
control the discharge of the rough and aggressive feelings emanating from the sadism need.
This control indicates an active superego. The person is deeply concerned with questions of
good and evil and of justice and injustice. Religion appeals to the e plus person because of
the ethical concerns of religion.
If more than the average numbers of choices [three] occur, then the e plus person
most likely will lean toward a reactive and compulsive control of aggressive needs. The e
plus person is highly moralistic, principled, and critical, suffering greatly from guilt over any
aggressive acts committed. Whereas the s minus person transforms his or her aggressive
need into mental and sublimated activities, the e plus person tries to suppress or repress the
aggression and rough emotions of anger, jealousy, hate, desire for revenge, and intolerance.
The e plus need is closely related to the k need since k minus is associated with repression
and k plus/minus is indicative of compulsiveness. The m minusan indication of mania
showing an active display of aggression is the opposite to the e pluss strict control of rough
emotions.
The e plus in normal individualsthose without any serious pathologyare often in
occupations and professions concerned with helping others. Achtnich has many examples of
these occupations.
There is a legend that a king who had heard about the miracles performed by Moses
wanted a portrait made of him. When the king saw the portrait, he was astounded: Moses
face portrayed brutality, cruelty, greediness, and ambition. When Moses appeared in his
court, the portrait was seen to be true. Moses explained that he indeed has all these
characteristics in his youth [he was a Cain]. But his great goodness and strength were from
his overcoming the evil within himself [thus becoming an Abel].
Szondi lists the characteristics of having a conscience, tolerance, desire to do good,
readiness to help, desire to heal, and having a fear of God.
The e plus character can only really be understood when the hy need is considered.
See the book by Szondi, Moser, and Webb for details on this.
The e plus persons thinking and behavior stands in close relationship to a social
need. The e plus person deals with a single person; the e minus person who uses his drive
constructively concerns himself or herself with the group: humanitys, not the individuals,
need.
The not genuine nature of e plus persons can show up as being overprotective, overly
moralistic, extreme scruples, authoritarian beliefs, excessive sense of feeling responsible and
need to sacrifice, excessive piousness or bigotry, and excessive inhibition of aggression so that
one doesnt dispute or conflict with others. Achtnich goes into details about this unbearable
Able-type.
One must constantly remember that behind an Able stands the Cain. Moses is the
example of this. The Cain can appear on the front stage. Often murders of passion occur
this way. The good doctor who becomes a murderer, for example. Stalin was a priest in his
youth (an Abel) later was a mass murderer (a Cain).
The basic temperament of the e plus is warm, affectionate, and impulsive; however,
these may hide behind a cold exterior because the person is trying to master his emotional
discharge. The e plus person is not subtlehe or she does not deal well with gray situations
consequently, he or she is often brutal in his or her decisions or directness. The e plus
person has an absolute view. He or she can be frank and loyal. Authenticity and clarity are
loved. Subtleties are despised.
Her ambition is firm and persevering. She can be patient and meticulous because she
has a taste for details and a concern for organization. She makes plans and is concerned
about use of her time and efforts.
Since the e plus person is dominated by extremes, he or she seeks for a balance.
The e plus person is by nature good, mild, kind, tolerant, and charitable and always
seeks the truth. His nature can push him to mysticism (also true of p minus). He needs to
believe in something and to appease revolts.
In all, one would rarely find the e plus person among the disrupters of society or as
delinquents.

Occupations Satisfying the e+ Need

[Based on Martin Achtnichs work in Der Berufsbilder-Test]

In his book Schicksalsanalyse: Wahl in Lieb, Freudschaft, Beruf, Krankheit und Tod
[Fate Analysis: Choice in Love, Friendship, Occupation, Illness and Death], Szondi establishes
that there are four parts involved in ones choice of an occupation:
The activity, or function,
The means or working tool,
The occupation or professional object/material/goal
The place.
For instance: a doctors activities are to heal and to look after; the means are
willingness to help, medications, health articles and equipment, preventative measures, and
speech; the professional objects are the body and spirit of the ill persons and also animals and
plants; the places are the hospital, first-aid stations, accident wards, veterinarian hospitals,
and plants sanctuaries [arboretums].
In his Der Berufsbilder-Test [Occupations Pictures Test] manual, Martin Achtnich
indicates that each choice of an occupation or job involves two needs: the first need is primary
and the second is subordinate but important too. There can be more than two needs involved
in ones choice of an occupation, but Achtnich concentrates on the two most important ones.
In the case of a doctor, the primary need is e+ [Szondis Epileptic Circle of the Abel character;
in Achtnichs analysis, Social: readiness to help, to look after], and the secondary need is e-
[Szondis Epileptic Circle of the constructive Cain character; Achtnich calls this the social
need: energy, dynamic, movement, urge for activity].
 The activity, or function, presented by Achtnich offers quick insights into the working
of a need. The primary functions for a doctor are to heal and to counsel (e+), and the
secondary functions are to take responsibility and to be enterprising (e-).

The social attitude or outlook is divided into two parts: the first part consists of: to
heal, readiness to help, and to be sympathetic. [In Szondi: e+ = Abel or Moses character;
also e+ hy-]

The functions for e+ [social need: to heal, to be sympathetic, and to look after] are:
[1] to heal, to look after (physician, physical therapist, nurse, occupations in health
organizations or those dealing with accidents, veterinarian, animal nurse)
[2] to help, to take care of, to provide for, to encourage, to soothe, to console, to comfort,
to support (nursing occupations, welfare worker, home-care worker, health teacher,
helper in development of children, care worker for children and young adolescents,
midwife)
[3] to pray, to preach, to have a religious outlook (parson, rector, priest, preacher, sexton,
missionary)
[4] to guide, to lead, to educate, to aid (teacher, home-care worker, home tutor, health
teacher, kindergarten teacher)
[5] to advise, to mediate (counselor, advisor about lifes problems, occupation counselor,
psychologist, marriage counselor, social worker, mediator)
[6] to protect, to secure (technicians in rescue work, fireman [e+ and e-])
[7] to rescue (rescue occupations [e+ and e-])
[8] to foster social service (social service occupations, social worker [for world
organizations, for example])
[9] to let live and grow, to preserve (gardener, farmer, forester, forest warden, biologist,
zoologistall employed in protecting nature)
[10] to change places only in connection to the previous items [1-9] and also in service of a
social or cultural goal

The e- Factor
(e = epileptic)
(Achtnich: Social Aspect: SE = mental energy, dynamic, courageous, go-getter
striving for independence, movement need, need to change places; this is the Cain that uses
his or her high energy constructively)

Abel, the good brother murdered, represents the e plus need; Cain, filled with
jealousy, anger, hate, and rage, represents the evil brother who kills and is marked by God for
his sin. Both Able and Cain are two sides of the same coin. The Paroxysmal drive is also
called the Startle or Surprise drive because these two opposites may switch, and this shocks
people. Many times a killer becomes religiousan Abel when in prison. Jeffrey Dahmer, the
serial killer of young men, became religious in prison.
Whether an Abel or a Cain, or a Moses, the person has the need to control emotions,
specifically the aggression and rough emotions of the s plus need.
The person selecting e minus rejects identification with the epileptic in the strict
control stage of e plus. The e minus persons does not wish to control their aggressive
emotions and the hate, anger, jealousy, rage, envy, revenge, and intolerance that is building
inside of them. As the state of tension builds in the s plus need, the e minus persons do not
exert emotional control over the aggression and rough emotions; therefore, as a boiling kettle
must let off steam, they will have a sudden emotional outburst that startles those around
them. A childand children have little emotional controlwho has a temper tantrum is a
model of this explosive behavior. When the emotional outburst ends, the e minus need will
turn into an e with a zero, thus indicating the release of the tension. Of course, the epileptic
fit is the model for this need in the paroxysmal drive. After the emotional outburst, some
Cains will turn into the Abel stage and present the e plus response on the Szondi test. These
sudden changes are typical of the paroxysmal drive.
Absent will be ethical concerns for the e minus persons. Their superego is lax unlike
the strict superego of the e plus individuals. However, the e minus persons will be constantly
on the lookout for any injustices done to them, even when there is little real substance to a so-
called injury or insult. In this way, paradoxically, the e minus persons are very dependent on
others, just as dependent as the h plus people who need others love. As always, the hy
selection will greatly influence the final outcome in the paroxysmal drive.
The e minus persons will tend to live out their id impulses and be restless. Their
desire for movement and change is prominent.
The e minus individuals will be among the antisocial from vagabonds to murders out
of passion. They tend to be among the lower occupations demanding physical work. But as
Achtnich has pointed out, they can be leaders with their tremendous energy when they use it
constructively. Szondi indicates that the Cain makes up one fifth of the general population.
The needs of s plus and m minus are prominent with the antisocial and criminal e minus
individuals. The m minusan indication of maniashows an active display of aggression
and is the opposite to the e pluss strict control of rough emotions.
Whereas the e plus persons are prone to compulsions, the e minus ones, living out
their aggressions, will not be compulsive. Intellectuals sometimes have an e minus response;
in this case, they will be aggressive in their activities.
Szondi lists the strivings of e minus individuals as being without a conscience,
intolerant, wishing to do evil, having joy in others suffering, desiring to wound others, and
being without fear of Godall these are opposite to those of the e plus persons.
Without the strict emotional control exhibited by the e plus, the e minus individuals
will be impulsive, unstable, and even violent out of the frustration of the rising tension in the
s plus need. The original need to killwhich is the foundation of the e needis turned into
hate, jealousy, envy, anger, rage, intolerance, and brutality. Completely absent are pity and
compassion, for they delight in the suffering and misfortunes of others.
These e minus individuals do not concern themselves with questions of good and
evil; they lack a moral conscience. Among them are murders out of passion, alcoholics, and
certain epileptics.
In other cases, the e minus persons are prominent in revolutions for some grand
cause of religion, race, patriotism, or family and bring all their excesses to these causes. They
fight against all the injustices of men and organizations. They are the prominent ones in the
mob that do the most savage and animalistic acts. These same individuals can use the same
violent energy for the good of humankind. Moses is a model for this.
When the e minus individuals use their energy constructively, they are greatly
treasured in the work place. Their restless energy causes things to happen. There is always
something explosive and choleric about these individuals. They take risks and are constantly
surprising people. They will fight against injustices in society with fervor. Unlike the s plus
individuals who use muscle power, the e minus ones use their mental and emotional powers
to obtain results. The e minus persons fight for the good of the group, not the individual as
does the e plus people.
Szondi was particularly interested in the Cains, Abels, and Moses of this world and
wrote a couple of books about them besides all his comments in his other books.
 Occupations Satisfying the e- Need
[Based on Martin Achtnichs work in Der Berufsbilder-Test]

In his book Schicksalsanalyse: Wahl in Lieb, Freudschaft, Beruf, Krankheit und Tod
[Fate Analysis: Choice in Love, Friendship, Occupation, Illness and Death], Szondi establishes
that there are four parts involved in ones choice of an occupation:
The activity, or function,
The means or working tool,
The occupation or professional object/material/goal
The place.
For instance: a pilots activities are to travel and to fly; the means are airplanes; the
professional objects are movement, speed, changing places, and airplanes; the places are
airplanes.
In his Der Berufsbilder-Test [Occupations Pictures Test] manual, Martin Achtnich
indicates that each choice of an occupation or job involves two needs: the first need is primary
and the second is subordinate but important too. There can be more than two needs involved
in ones choice of an occupation, but Achtnich concentrates on the two most important ones.
In the case of a pilot, the primary need is e- [Szondis Epileptic Circle of the constructive Cain
character; Achtnich calls this the social need: energy, dynamic, movement, urge for activity],
and the secondary need is hy+ [Szondis hysteria; Achtnich calls this the needs to perform, to
show, to have an aesthetic appreciation].
The activity, or function, presented by Achtnich offers quick insights into the working
of a need. The primary functions for a pilot are to fly, to travel, to take risks, to do dangerous
things, and to undertake responsibility for others and to risk oneself (e-), and the secondary
functions are to be something out of the ordinary, to create wonder, and to wear a uniform
(hy+).

The social attitude or outlook is divided into two parts. The first part e+ has been
covered. The second part consists of: energy, dynamic, movement, thirst for doing. [In
Szondi: e- = The Cain character; also e- hy+] [In Szondi: e- = Cain character, but these
occupations portray the possible constructive uses of aggressive, mental energy in an
occupation or activity.]

The functions of constructive e- are:

[1] to risk, to venture, to do dangerous things (expedition leader, researcher on nature,
helper during a catastrophe, acrobat)
[2] to travel, to drive, to fly (pilot, astronaut, naval captain, taxi driver, locomotive driver,
transport occupations, representative in outside work, conductor, stewardess on a
railroad or airline )
[3] to go, to run, to race, to jump, to do gymnastics, to dance (delivery occupations, letter
carrier, sports figures involved in running, jumping, turning, springing, riding-of-
horses instructor, dance instructor)
[4] to climb, to descend (mountain climber leader, pilot, elevator operator, diver for hire,
radio antenna fitter on towers, conductor on a mountain railwayall these
occupations involve rising and descending)
[5] to be active, to be industrious, to hustle, to participate in varied activities, which are
always bound with continued surprises (travel guide, researcher group leader, helper
in emergencies, people standing by for emergencies [police, firemen], border patrol
workers)
[6] to let motors run, to set machines in motion, to start into turning motions (machinists,
truck drivers, factory workers, mechanics)
[7] to overcome natures powers [to research natures powers = Factor G (p in Szondi)]:
[7a] Fire: to light it, to extinguish it, to burn up something with it, to heat with it,
to anneal with it, to weld with it, to forge with it (stoker or fireman on a ship,
foundry worker, baker, fire oil worker, fireman, blacksmith, welderall
these deal with fire and sparks)
[7b] Electricity: to electrify with it (electrician, electrical engineer, worker with
high tension wires, workers with electricity)
[7c] Atom Power, Suns Power (knowledgeable workers for atom power and
suns energy)
[7d] Wind Power, Aerodynamics (aerodynamic engineer, meteorologist [working
with wind power])
[7e] Earth Power (geologist, geographer, construction engineer, volcano specialist
all these have to do with the power of the earth)
[7f] Water Power (construction engineer, tilling-of-land engineer, oceanographer
all have to do with the power of water)
[8] to render resistance, to rebel, to revolt, to live out emotional excitement in an
occupation, to be Iimpulsive (occupations which require courage for achieving new
goals, a revolutionary, a hero, politician)
[9] to take jurisdiction over, to defend, to condemn, to accuse, to punish (lawyer, defense
lawyer, judge, prosecutor, police person, criminologist)
10] to undertake responsibility and risk for oneself and others, to lead others, to cope
with situations, to be driven to be independent (authority position [not in the sense of
conquering but of leading], manager, superintendent, entrepreneur, wholesale
merchant leader, teacher, politician)

Achtnich: Interpretation of the Negative Reaction e [-SH or -SE]

Social Aspect: Achtnich has two parts to the Social Attitude; Szondi only has one.

Defended Factor native, original the Defense directs the working out
Factor need itself against of the Defense and
Reaction formation
-SH [e+] social readiness the social helping opposition
To look out for; to help society
To help
-SE [e-] readiness to take the undertaking of protection need;
Energy risks great risks anxiousness

In the next tables are the complete defense and the reversion for the SH [e+]
and SE [e-] factors.
Minus Complete defense Reversion
Factor
-SH [e+] for One turns away from each chance to One experiences disillusionment
the helping be helpful: Each person should care when dealing with others. Because of
social for himself or herself. Emphasis on ones own bad conscience, one feels
attitude of his own impulse for independence: resentments: these are reaction
the Abel or I need no help. One seeks formations based on conscience
Moses type independence in occupations where conflicts. One seeks occupations that
one will only rely on oneself. have to do with justice and
uprightness. One applies oneself to
 occupation choices involving living
beings (for example, animals) as
objects in order to ensure justice for
them.

Note: The e- of Achtnich shows pictures of people taking risksrace drivers, for example
who actually are representative of the e- (the Cain) of Szondi. This negative reaction to e- is a
negation of a negation (e-).

Minus Complete defense Reversion

Factor
-SE [e-] for One shies away from risky and Ones own original thirst for activity
the social dangerous occupations. One lacks is thwarted. One now occupies
attitude of the dynamic thirst for activity and oneself with the theoretical with
being initiative. One declines occupations energy and drive without taking any
energetic: that involve movement; one feels one risks of ones own.
the must love one place and remain
constructive there.
Cain

The e 0 Factor
(e = epileptic)
(0 = open)

The open e response indicates that there is no tension in controlling ones emotions;
this means that emotions can be discharged easily. The open e response can also mean that
there has been a discharge of aggressive and rough emotions such as after an emotional
outburst or epileptic fit. If one continually gives the open e, this means that the aggression is
discharged steadily. The discharge can be normal or pathological.
If the open e occurs as part of a changing patterngoing from e plus or e minus or e
plus-minus to open e, then this means a paroxysmal event has occurred. Manic persons who
are continually discharging aggression have the open e response.

The hy Factor
(hy = hysteria)
(Achtnich: Need to Show, Representation Need, Aesthetic Sense)
[See Susan Deris book, Szondi, Moser, and Webbs book, and web sites for more
information.]

The hy+ Factor

(hy = hysteria)

The epileptic need is to control the strong emotions of s plus; the hysteric need is to
control the tender emotions as described in the h plus need. Both the hysteric and the
epileptic surprise or startle. The hysteric, unlike the epileptic, must have an audience. [If
there is a combination of e need with hy plus, then the epileptics need will be shown.]
 Both the epileptic and hysteric have disturbances in the control of emotions.
Whereas the epileptic is concerned with ethical questionsthat is, ones inner control
of good and evilthe hysteric is concerned with moral questions: does one conform to the
dictates of society? Both are showing the influence of the superego. Particularly in the
hysteric need is the prohibition of incest operative.
Since the emotions by hy plus individuals are based on the finer emotions of h plus
need, then the explosive outburstsas of an actor on a stageis of a lesser quantity and
quality than that of the epileptic who is expressing his violent emotions of s plus.
Graphologists have long considered that one who has light pressureone of the main
graphic characteristics of hy plushas an outburst and then quickly forgets it. The epileptic,
however, has high pressure, and when he or she has an emotional episode, the event is long
remembered. The epileptic damns up the anger, jealousy, or other strong emotion; the
hysteric will not. Otto Preminger, the famous movie director, was famous for his tyrannical
outbursts on the movie set but quickly forgot the event and quickly thereafter was best
friends with the one who was the target of his emotions.
On the primitive animalistic level, there is a movement storm by an animal to escape
a predator: a bug caught in a sink by a human runs in any direction frantically. The hy plus
persons emotional outburst involving much body movement is enacting this movement
storm. The hy minus, when confronted with danger, likes to play deada defense
mechanism of animals when being attacked by a predator. The turtles action when attacked
by a predator is an example.
The hysteric at the Freudian level of partial drives is displaying the exhibitionistic
need. The hy plus need, however, takes on a broad connotation and refers to anyone who
exhibitsthus actually displayshis or her emotional state to those in the environment. This
is certainly a universal need. When someone positively responds to the picture of a hysteric
in the Szondi Test, he or she is indicating the intensity and quality of this exhibitionistic need.
Achtnich calls this need the need to show oneself. If one responds negatively to the hysterics
picture in the Szondi Test, this also indicates that the exhibitionist need exists but is held back.
People who respond positively to the pictures of hysterics in the Szondi Test indicate
that they identify with the need to exhibit their emotions in some tangible way. Whether the
person will demonstrate this need in a positive way will depend on the reactions for the other
needs.
Unlike the epileptic who has depth and intensity of emotions, the hy plus has little
emotional depth. The emotions that are the most shallow can easily be expressed. The hy
plus person, thus, expresses emotions easily and has a shallow emotional life. All this is
characteristic of the light pressure writer.
Individuals who respond with hy plus must have an audience. They, therefore, like
situations where they are the center of attention. Professional actors, performers of all kinds
including sports figures, politicians, teachers, and professorsall on the stage and in the
limelightare favorite occupations for hy plus individuals.
Conversion hysteriawhere the parts of the body are used in an unusual way before
another because of some emotional disturbanceis one pathological possibility for the hy
plus person. Hypochondria and anxiety hysteriaprivate kinds of pathologybelong to the
realm of the hy minus individual. Here the emotions are denied outward expression as is not
so for hy plus.
The hy plus person carefully assesses the audience and situation before displaying
his or her emotional state. And part of this assessment is what is to ones advantage? The hy
plus individual loves to please, is careful to sustain interest of the viewers, and, above all, to
astound the persons with his or her beauty or handsomeness or cleverness. He or she loves to
seduce and to possess others.
 Money is of great interestalthough not discussedbecause having money gives the
hy plus person power to live out her or her need and not to depend on others.
The hy plus individuals want success, the taste of glory, recognition, and
approbation. They are, thus, highly ambitious in their goals and are extremely adroit in
attaining them. They esteem those who have reached high social positions and those who are
more resourceful and clever than they are.
The hy plus person is lively in whatever is done, dashing, charming, and even ironic
in order to be clever.
Unlike the e plus individual who follows the spirit of the law, the hy plus person
holds more to the letter than the spirit of the law. He or she is hurt less deeply by the shocks
and traumas of life than the epileptic. The hysteric adapts to the circumstances and searches
for some compromise to extract him or her out of a difficult situation.
All these positive qualities can become negative if the hy plus individual exaggerates
this need for attention. The person then becomes openly egotistical; his or her morality is too
subtle in service of his or her own personal interest; his behavior is corrupted. In his or her
wish to achieve goals, he or she becomes critical of others and plays any role in order to
succeed at any price.
Szondi states that the hy plus need can make humans shameless exhibitionists and
destroyers of all shame and disgust boundaries. They place the need to show themselves in
the show window of their being. They may enter into an apparent goalless movement storm
in order to attain their hidden drive goal of obtaining love and being rescued. They produce
in times of conflict shivering movements, tics, running here and there, and going up and
down. Out of anxiety, their whole body shakes. They bring licentiousness and
uninhibitedness into the world. They are the shameless.
In modern terms, the hy plus person loves the slogans: Just do it. No Limits. In
the sixties, the favored motto was Do your own thing.

Occupations Satisfying the hy Need

In his book Schicksalsanalyse: Wahl in Lieb, Freudschaft, Beruf, Krankheit und Tod
[Fate Analysis: Choice in Love, Friendship, Occupation, Illness and Death], Szondi establishes
that there are four parts involved in ones choice of an occupation:
The activity, or function,
The means or working tool,
The occupation or professional object/material/goal
The place.
For instance: a cameraman directors activities are to film and to represent something
artistically; the means are film and camera, decoration accessories, lasting reactions from the
public; the professional objects are the film, movie goer, the eventful; the places are working
studio and any place outside.
In his Der Berufsbilder-Test [Occupations Pictures Test] manual, Martin Achtnich
indicates that each choice of an occupation or job involves two needs: the first need is primary
and the second is subordinate but important too. There can be more than two needs involved
in ones choice of an occupation, but Achtnich concentrates on the two most important ones.
In the case of a cameraman, the primary need is hy+ [in Achtnichs analysis, the need to show,
to perform, to use aesthetic sense], and the secondary need is e- [Szondis Epileptic Circle of
the Cain character; Achtnich calls this the social need of a constructive Cain character: energy,
dynamics, movement, thirst for doing]. And a film director needs lots of energy to direct a
movie.
The activity, or function, presented by Achtnich offers quick insights into the working
of a need.
 The functions for hy+ [to show, to perform, to have an aesthetic sense] are:
[1] to show, to display, such as ones beauty, strength, goodness, cleverness, efficiency,
or a work product that is ones alone (dancer, model, artist, one engaged in sports,
occupations in which one wears a uniform [also in sports, this is true] [movement is
part of this] [the means for a dancer, for example, are body, beauty, movement, body
achievement, a uniform])
[2] to perform or to shape artistically (performer, painter of pictures, sculpturer,
musician, conductor, actor, artist)
[3] to deliver a speech or talk, to recite, to appear as a speaker or a singer, to act, to
publish, to demonstrate (politician, professor, novelist, journalist, speaker)
[4] to stand in the footlights in a public appearance about oneself, others, or news, to
represent (journalist, reporter, editor, politician)
[5] to propagandize, to find fault with, to expose, to bring forward, to make known, to
enlist, to entice (propaganda and advertising worker, demonstrator of something,
salesperson, trainer of salespersons, art dealer)
[6] to make a person beautiful or handsome, to make attractive, to make up, to dress
(model occupation, beautician, cosmetologist, fashion designer)
[7] to photograph, to film (photographer, film director, cameraman)
[8] to adorn, to decorate, to beautify, to gild or to glitter, to ornament, to polish, to
varnish, to paint (show window decorator, gilder [to decorate with gold], decoration
occupation, painter, handwork with aesthetic wrapping paper)
[9] to draw, to paint, to draw graphically, to make handicrafts, to satisfy aesthetic needs
(handicraft worker, goldsmith, silversmith, graphic artist, ceramics painter, designer,
restaurant keeper, interior decorator, creator of a newspaper or column on art)
[10] to devote oneself to beautiful persons or things, to look at and to admire beautiful
and handsome persons or things (occupation in which one can occupy oneself with
beautiful things)
[Note: In hysteria, the movement storm is a typical characteristic; therefore,
movementas with a danceris equally part of hysteria as it is with the epilepsy.]

The hy- Factor

(hy = hysteria)

When people negatively respond to the picture of hysterics in the Szondi Test, they
are counter-identifying and rejecting the exhibitionistic display of emotions portrayed by the
hysteric. The hy minus individuals will control the display of the finer emotions of h plus.
The narcissistic and exhibitionistic needs are controlled by hy minus persons. This very
control and blocking from showing emotions lead to an intense emotional life. This is an
obvious contrast to the superficial and shallow emotional life of the hy plus individuals.
Like the e plus persons, the hy minus with this control of emotions indicates a
healthy superego.
The hy minus individuals, because of the blocking of emotions within, have a rich
and vivid fantasy life, often daydream, and have access to the prelogical thinking of a child.
Emotions not acted out become felt as an inner, subjective experience.
Again, it is important to remember, as Susan Deri often emphasizes, that a minus
response does not mean that the person does not have this hy need. The need is just as strong
if not stronger because of not being acted outthan the hy plus responses. Needs not
acted out become even more significant in the peoples lives.
If the negative responses are loadedthat is, more than threethen the
exhibitionistic need is acted out but in some distorted fashion. Homosexuality (many times
latent but felt subjectively), anxiety hysteria, diffuse anxiety, phobia, and hypochondria are
the leading nervous problems. The hy plus individuals never have anxieties like this because
they act out their emotions even if in disguised forms of conversion hysteria. The hy is the
most common indicator of anxiety in the test.
Individuals who have hy minus responses are naturally discrete and modest and
possess humility.
Because of a holding back of the expression of finer emotions, the imagination is
intensified. One can live in ones dreams and have premonitions. Thus, one can experience
in these ways what is not open to one in reality. On the other hand, being discrete, secret, full
of tact and gentleness, the hy minus persons do not dare to be themselves, hide their
sensitivity and tendernessbecause being perceived as weaknessesand thus lower their
self-esteem. Fearful and inhibited from social contacts, these hy minus individuals try not to
attract attention and to mold themselves to the morality imposed by society and repress their
own desires.
Other characteristics of hy minus are faint-heartedness, timidity, shyness,
bashfulness, feeling of shame, clumsiness, awkwardness, puzzlement, confusion, self-
consciousness in stepping into the limelight, hiding oneself, concealing, holding oneself back
overall, lacking self-confidence.
They have deep and profound emotions but do not dare to live them out. At the
moments when emotions could be lived out, a paralysis of some kinda playing deadof
speech, thought, feelings, or memory occurs. These emotions can however be lived in a
fictional world. The hy need is especially adapted to the realm of art, particularly dramatic
art.
Szondi writes about the illnesses in wartime that belong to the hy minus need. These
are the immobilization phenomena: the hysterical incapability to go, to stand, to speak, and to
think. These phenomena go back to the primitive, animalistic reaction of playing dead and
hiding.
The reactions of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, when becoming conscious of
their sin of eating of the tree of knowledge, were to hide and to feel shame. The same
reactions prevail today in the hy minus individuals.

Achtnich: Interpretation of the Negative Reaction: hy-

Defended Factor native, original the Defense directs the working out
Factor need itself against of the Defense and
Reaction formation
-Z [hy-] need to show drive to show shame, to want to
Show Need oneself oneself; hide oneself
exhibitionism

In the next table are the complete defense and the reversion for Z [hy] factor.
 Minus Complete defense
factor
-Z [hy-] The need to show oneself is not
present or cannot be lived out.
Inhibition and shame reactions are
present, and these can harm ones
occupational success. The person
will not or cannot show his or her
work, cannot step forth, and hides
his or her light under a bushel
basket. Eventually one recognizes
if there is no aesthetic-artistic talent
presentthat one cannot consider an
occupation that requires one to show
oneself or ones work.
Possibly also the response of the
defense of musicians and the
beautiful people.
Thehy0Factor
(hy = hysteria)
Reversion
Occupations are chosen in which the
person does not put himself or
herself in the position of stepping
into the limelight. The person must
remain in the background, not be
conspicuous, and remain
anonymous. One does not choose
individualistic professions, which
emphasize ones own person in
which one must exhibit oneself.
However, one can choose
occupations in which something is
produced and that can be shown:
one seeks any art form that can be
brought forth to be shown.

The zero response indicates that the hy need to show oneself or ones work is being
lived out in some way.
The hy need is more easily lived out than other needs; therefore, the changes in the
hy need can appear quite frequently as the situation of the person changes.
Even if the open hy is a constant response over a period of time, one cannot know
exactly how the exhibitionistic need is being lived out, whether in normal or pathological
ways. One fact is certain: persons with an open, a zero, response do not have great control
over their emotions and show them to others almost immediately. This showing of emotions
is often recognized and causes one to state that this is a hysterical type of person.
In pathology, the zero response appears in manic individuals and in the antisocial
who are acting out their needs. Criminals and psychopaths also act out their needs without
emotional control. Compulsive neurotics can also give this response because they act out
their needs in compulsive rituals and ceremonies.
Since the hy need is acted out, the open hy response is less frequent among those
with anxiety hysteria.
In sum, the open hy response indicates a discharge of the tender affects (h need) in
any kind of hysterical act or even a fit. This response also indicates a weakness in the moral
censor. The person is indifferent to the rules of society. If e plus or minus response is given,
then the strong emotions are acted out, and one displays ones goodness or badness.

Sixteen Combinations for the Paroxysmal Vector

[See Szondi, Moser, and Webb book for detailed analyses.]
[Extract from L. Szondi, Experimental Diagnostics of Drives, English translation by Gertrude
Aull]

P1 = -0 Sporadic anxiety states with aggression

P2 = -- Panic, playing dead
P3 = +/- - Hysteroid anxiety and apprehensiveness
P4 = +0 Fears, clearly focused
P5 = 0- Paranoid fears
P6 = 0 +/- Discomfort with whining
P7 = ++ High emotionality, stormy feelings
P8 = 0+ Outbursts of rage exhibited
P9 = 00 Serene moods, low after excitement
P10 = +/- 0 Anxiety with compulsive impulses and inhibition
P11 = - +/- Crude affectivity of a shamefaced and inhibited Cain
P12 = + +/- A self-exhibiting Abel
P13 = +/- + A converted Cain
P14 = +/- +/- Ethical dilemmas, Abel in fight with Cain
P15 = -+ The pure Cain
P16 = +- The pure Abel

Szondi: Transformation of the Apparent Forms of Drive Factors:

Personality Vicissitudes Related to the Eight Drive Needs

Drive Vectors
[Some of these P
ideas are from Paroxysmal Drive: Ethics drive; Emotional Discharge, Surprise Drive
pathoanalysis.]
The Paroxysmal (P) and Schizophrenic (Sch) vectors are called
central vectors and express a more inner activity: what happens inside.
They express the position of the subject on the instinctual needs, which
emanate from the other two vectors ( S and C). They indicate the way in
which the instinctual movements are to be handled and worked
through by the subject on a more interiorized mode. By these central
instinctual tendencies, the subject is protected against the peripheral
instinctual dangers.
Szondi designs the vector P as a defense mechanism against the
external dangers on the one hand and the interior dangers on the other.
It informs us on the components of emotional control. This corresponds
somehow to the activity of the Super Ego.
It is the relationship with the other, which is concerned. It shows
ones capacity to accept the other as an individual, either by the
conscience of guilt (e) or by what can compromise the relation with
others by the need (hy): a) to impress and to be admired by the others
or to shamelessly exhibit oneself to the other (hy+) or instead b) to hide
or to dissimulate
(hy-).
The factors (e) and (hy) refer, on a purely essential basis, to a
human community which founds rules and laws and organizes thereby
the social life of man. The paroxysmal drive mediates (intervenes in)
the manner of the discharge of the drives.
The particular energy source by which the paroxysmal drive works
 are the powers of affects.
We must here again emphasize that affects never function as drives
but that only their energies can be brought to the drive behaviors.
Thus the surprise drive (P) can use the gross and fine affects, which
are dammed up in itself, and the form of drive affect movements and
behaviors are immediately discharged.
The paroxysmal drive consists of:
1. First, out of the epileptic factor (e), which on one side dams up the
affects powers and discharges them in an attack manner. This is the
social-negative tendency: e-.
2. Second, it consists of the hysteric form (hy), which dams up the
fine affects. This it does with the tendency hy-, which is the foundation
for the moral shame shrinking. On the other hand, it brings to
exhibition at the same time these fine affects with the tendency hy+,
which conditions the exhibition need.
The common drive goal of both factors is that the person through
surprise movements (playing dead, movement storm, color changes
[blushing, paling] is to protect oneself from outer and inner dangers [for
example, from killing the enemy].

Drive Factors e hy
(Epilepsy) (Hysteria)
Ethics, Cain and Abel trends Need for attention, exhibitionism
Drives Related to: The relationship to the Law (Oedipal Period)
Law against killing the father Law against
incest
Area of the Superego
These factors express the position of the subject on the instinctual
needs from the S vector and the C vector. These e and hy factors work
both against the external dangers and internal dangers. Emotional
control is the issue.
Other Descriptions e-: tendency to evil, accumulation hy+: tendency to shameless self-
of rage, hatred, anger, vengeance, exhibition hy-: tendency to
injustice, intolerance, Cain collective shame-facedness.
e+: tendency to good, collective
justice, tolerance, kindness, mercy,
devotion, Abel.
Relationship to the law contributes
to the constitution of effective
subjectivity. The father represents
law and limitations and killing the
father opens up limits and ones
subjectivity. Killing the father is
the utmost denial of the law.
Phylogenetic, Playing dead Protection need: to hide, to be
animalistic still
Movement storm
Freudian: Early Urethra Erotic (Bed-wetting) Pleasure in drawing attention
childhood- Exhibitionist and Show Pleasure
pregenital [Scopophilia: to look at, to be
Partial drives curious.]
Psychic I. Paroxysmality.
Characteristics II. Surprise and will-surprise kinds
of attacks.
III. Rough or crude affects (hate,
anger, rage), also change from the
violent Cain needs and damming of
them beyond consciousness.
Against this in the public or on-a-
stage: the roles of the pious Abel
(much simulation).
IV. Extreme breaks.
V. Immediate reversal into the
opposite part:
Change from pious tenderness into
uninhibited violence,
Immediate change from Abel to
Cain.
Change out of:
sexual dullness into uninhibited
sexuality,
repentant religiosity into sinful
godliness,
anger and fright into wild boldness,
pious domesticity into goalless
wandering, to go away from the
home,
rest into unrest,
open self-revelation into abrupt
closeness,
flexibility into rigid autism,
pedantry into superficiality,
altruism into egoism,
objectivity into subjective
egocentricity,
openly being interested into apathy
(stupor),
bashful modesty into unrestrained
boasting,
optimism into pessimism,
moderate eating into excessive
eating (polyphagia),
moderate drinking into excessive
drinking (polydipsia),
denying alcohol into excessive
alcohol enjoyment (dipsomania),
timid manner of speaking into a
flood of words,
remaining faithful to the object into
being untrue to the object,
stuttering into stammering,
being economical into frivolous
I. Paroxysmality.
II. Will surprise attacks.
III. Repression of feminine
tenderness, the love desires, the
Abel demands: expression
appearance of masculine
powerfulness or violence
IV. Dissimulation Spectacle
simulation
V. Change from the simulated
Cain into the repressed tender
and pious Abel (crying fit), etc.
VI. The defense mechanisms have
an animalistic character:
1. Movement storm (Kretschmer):
producing apparent aimless
movements in order to attain the
need goal (being beloved, sexual
satisfaction). Forms: cramps,
shivering movements, tic,
grappling with, throwing about,
running up and down, arranging
scenes, smashing about, etc. (the
typical hysteric scene)
2. Acting dead reflex
(Kretschmer): self-mutilation,
immobilization: inability to go
(abasia), inability to speak
(aphonia, aphasia), inability to
think (stupor, being dammed up).
Loss of sense perceptions:
hysterical blindness, deafness,
insensitive to taste, pain, and
sense of warmth, paling,
blushing.
VII. Hypnosis talent. Auto and
other suggestibility.
VIII. Egocentricity: indulging in
fantasies, lying (pseudologia
fantastica).
IX. Unrestrained, uninhibited.
 squandering,
desire after sociability into
friendless loneliness,
life affirming into longing for
death.

I. Pathologic, 1. Genuine epilepsy: (tonic-clonic 1. hysteria, anxiety-hysteria,

extreme, and conflict with loss of consciousness): 2. anxiety
negative small attack (petit mal), 3. tics
manifestations: psychomotor attacks, 4. phobias
(a) Drive disorders break in consciousness: absence, 5. pavor nocturnus (nightmares)
conscious splitting, twilight 6. pseudologia fantastica (lying)
condition, psychosis epileptica 7. conversions, hysterical
Paroxysmal manias as psychic (paralysis, blindness, etc.)
equivalents of epileptic attacks: paroxysmal tachycardia, nervous
a. periodic wandering (poriomania) colitis, uncontrolled fantasies,
b. periodic drinking (dipsomania),
c. periodic twilight conditions with
stealing or larceny (kleptomania),
d. periodic incendiary
( pyromania),
e. deathlike sleep in twilight
condition (for example, to run
amuck) (thanatomania),
f. pyknolepsy
2. Equivalents of genuine epilepsy:
blood vessels neurotic migraine,
stuttering, stammering,
asthma, eczema,
 enuresis (bed-wetting),
allergy illnesses,
rhinitis vasomotorica,
left-handedness,
glaucoma,
hay-fever, rheumatic disorders,
neuralgias, colitis, shingles, slipped
disk, gastric and duodenal ulcer,
angina pectoris, cardiac infarct,
high blood pressure, intestinal and
bowel disorders
homicide following upon outbursts
of rage
(b) Delinquency Kleptomania, Swindling and confidence
tricking
(c) Suicide Death through fire, jumping off -
high places, death through
dipsomania (drinking)
II. Physiologic, Accumulation of crude affect (rage, 1. self-display: hy+
normal socialized hatred, resentment, vindictiveness,) 2. desire to make an impressions
manifestations: explosive discharge of emotions, through ostentatious behavior:
(1) Drive intolerance hy+
symptoms 3. fantasy (hy-)
4. moralizing (hy-)
(2) Maturity, Adult Startle drive (surprise) (Paroxysmal Startle drive
is patterned after having a fever: (a) Exhibition drive (hy+)
damming up, rising tension, and (b) Moral censor (hy-) The
then the crisis and dropping of demands of the h drive (tender
fever.) feelings) are what are censored.
(a) conscience censor Abel: e+ (c ) Buildup of a fantasy world
(b) damming up of gross affects (hy-)
(rage, hate, anger, envy, jealousy)
Cain demand : e-
What is dammed up are the
demands from the Sadism need.
(3). (a) (a) e+: merciful, charitable, good, (a) hy+: desire to show off,
Socialization mild, guilelessness, compassion, approval need, glory seeking,
(b) Character kind, benevolent, sympathetic, vanity, pleasure in drawing
tolerant, conscientiousness, pity, attention, desire to please,
true pathos, love, forgiveness, coquetry, will to be popular,
admiration, peace of mind, Abel playacting impulse,
characteristics in general. Ethical (b) hy-: shamefulness, shyness,
impulse wish to hide oneself, wish for
(b) e-: malevolent, inclination to unreal fantasy world, living in
rage, hate, envy, jealousy, anger, fantasy world, whining and
revenge-seeking, malicious joy at lamentation (hy +/-),
anothers misfortune, deceitfulness, anxiousness
compassionlessness, unfeelingness,
untruthfulness, Cain characteristics
in general.
Explosion impulse
(4) Occupation, e epileptiform (homo sacer)
Professional field: professions
Paroxysmal
occupation field
(a)Chief Drive Damming of rough affects and their
Need discharge in unexpected or
surprising moments (Cain and
Abel)
(b) Chief sense, Sense of balance, smell
reality perception
(c) Professional (a) original elements: fire, water,
object air, earth
(b) soul [depth of soul]
(d) (1) Professional (1) transportation means: bicycle,
means (2) streetcar, train, ship, auto, airplane
professional (2) changing places (constant
activity movement occupations), praying
(church), devotion, serving,
helping, doing good activities
(e) Professional (a) height-depths
place or location rising up-falling down
surge-swirl movement rotation
(turning in a circle)
(b) church, stillness
(f) Occupation sales representative, health visitor
solutions: (a) transportation occupations:
Occupation, errand boy, seaman, chauffeur,
Professional field flyer, railroad engineer, messenger,
Socialization in a driver, sailor, aviator,
profession, (b) jobs involving fire: miner,
occupation blacksmith, fireman, chimney
sweep, baker, pyrotechnician,
heating expert, steel worker,
(c) explosions occupations (fire and
surprise): flame thrower, miner,
gunpower maker, pyrotechnician,
fireworks, explosives manufacture,
bomb disposal operator, asphalt
road worker
(d) soldier: in particular flame
thrower, explosion expert,
engineer, storm trooper.
III. Socially 1. Collective justice, kindness,
Positive charity
manifestations: 2. devoutness
Drive Symptoms 3. tolerance
Ethics, Religion, churchly, religious
hy hysteriform professions
Damming up of fine feelings and
their discharge in unexpected
moments
Spiritual exhibitionism
-
Ones own person
Play with oneself: mimic, voice,
movement activities
Spectator, looker on, theater,
assembly, meeting, multitude,
street, etc.
Announcer, artist in general,
actor, actress, orator, model,
circus performers, street-crier,
market vendor, popular speaker;
TV, theatre, and film
personalities,
Drama and acting art: with
women: amazon roles, tragic
heroines.
Motor conductor (women),
Animal trainer (men and
women),
Calling out on the street,
marketplace and entertainment
places,
Sport and sport occupations: art
of fencing, riding, hunting,
wrestling, and mountain
climbing.
Acting and Art in general
Dramatic Art
Sublimation and ethical humanist
Occupations Holy (sacred) (helping, doing good) Politicians, actor,
professions: nun, missionary sister, Delegate, manager of bureau or
monk pastor, rabbi, health factories
protection, physician in service of
health protection, missionary,
social worker (deal with the soul
and evil)
Physician, therapeutic and help
occupations in general

The Schizophrenic, or Ego, Drive

III. The Schizophrenia (Sch) Vector, also called the Ego Vector because it indicates the
structure and degree of rigidity or fluidity of the ego.
[See Susan Deris book Introduction to the Szondi Test: Theory and Practice for
greater details.]

k factor (pictures of catatonics) representing the need to keep up the egos narcissistic
integrity and separateness from the environmental objects

p factor (pictures of paranoid schizophrenics) representing the expansive needs of the

ego, the tendency to fuse into the objects of the environment

The Four Functions of the Ego

As an introduction to the Ego Drive, following are extracts from L. Szondis Ich-
Analyse [Ego Analysis], 1956 on the four functions of the ego. Included are remarks on
occupations and interests.

The four elementary functions of the ego are projection, inflation, introjection, and
negation.
1. 1. 1. Projection (p-) is the original, primitive unconscious elementary striving of the
ego which transfers the power and might of the unconscious of ones self to an object in
the outer world. The unconscious end striving of this projection is being one and the
same with the object, thus the participation drive.
2. 2. 2. Inflation (p+) is the unconscious elementary striving to doubling, to be the
original double-essence being, to be the two sexual being [hermaphrodite], to unify the
man and woman in himself or herself. The unconscious drive of each inflation is the
striving for perfection [completeness, absoluteness] that is after being all. The doubling
and perfection arise in the soul through ones making conscious the unconscious mental
opposites.
3. 3. 3. Introjection (k+) is the unconscious original elementary striving of the ego after
incorporation, after taking possession, after assimilation of all valuable objects and
representations of the outer and inner world. The unconscious end of each introjection is
the striving after having all.
4. 4. 4. Negation (k+) is the unconscious elementary striving of the ego after resignation,
denial [saying no], and repression of definite demands, representations, and experiences.
 The unconscious end goal of each negation is the disimagination of all ideals of Being (p
+) and having (k+), ultimately destruction if pushed too far.
The unconscious tendencies after being one and same with the object, after being all,
after having all, and after denying all and destroying all are the four unconscious elementary
functions of the ego.
Thanks to these, on the one hand, man can be a social and human being, and, on the
other hand, he may destroy himself and the objects of the world.
Therefore, the result of projection (p-) is the bodily and spiritual pairing and union of
mankind, thus, the pair, the family, group, clan, people and social groups.
The result of inflation (p+) is the artistic drive after perfection [completeness,
absoluteness] by the means of religion, art, poetry, and research.
As the social result of introjection (k+) we think of all the material and intellectual
property and goods, all as capital elements in character, profession, and knowledge, and all
the capital that figure as the material goods in the life of the individual and society.
The important social result of negation (k-) is of a double sense: at one time the social
adaptation to reality and at another time destruction. The quantity of negation determines if
adaptation or destruction occurs.
In the beginning the function of the ego consists exclusively of the function of
participation (p-). And only when being one with the mother, the world, and the all
continually becomes impossible is the ego compelled to live its power of being in another
being form. Thus appear the secondary projection [negative relationship with the object],
inflation, introjection, and negation.

Introjection
Through introjection (k+) the ego can make so many danger-bringing strivings not
dangerous, and indeed through the ego making out of being tendencies (p+) have interests
(k+). All that the diastolic [expanding] ego may be can by means of incorporation be reduced
to interests of having. Thus become the danger of expansion in being defended through the
not-dangerous having-an-interest-in-something. [Introjection is bringing an object into the
sphere of the ego as an interest.]
Will a man, for example, be all mighty as God? Then he is mad. However, if he
introjects the being-God-demands into his ego and makes out of the inflative being-tendency
scientific interests for mythology, religion, religious psychology, thus he has the making-mad
danger through the k-ego defended himself through the incorporation of his being strivings.
Henceforth, he will no longer be God; he satisfies himself in that he has made the Gods a
particular interest, and thus becomes a mythologer or religious researcher. Many professions
comeas we have shownthrough introjection of threatening inflative or projective being
strivings. Instead of the demands that each to be (for example a woman to be a man, a man to
be a woman, to be a murder or slayer as a Cain or a criminal in actuality appears through
egosystole (k+) an adequate interest: gynecologist, judicial medicine, forensic psychiatry,
prison work, etc.
The egosystole (k+) may also through the introjection activity work as the way of
limiting the being spheres through interests, professional choices, and character formations
secure the oneness and health of the ego.
 As a further aid to understanding the k and p factors, following is the classic Szondi
view of the circulation path of the Ego. Pathoanalysis has another version of these
movements of the ego.
Circulation Path of the Ego: Ego Development: Egos efforts to repair the broken dual union
of the original participation (of the mother and child: the basic model of all participation)
(stage Sch 0 -):
Stage III: k+ Stage II: p+
Total Introjection Inflation Phase (again after the breakup of
Total Incorporation the dual union, the ego increases strength
To have and the object is impotent (partial
incorporation): doubling of the ego: to be
everything

Object Ego

A ego
A
 object BB

Ego

Objects introjected become the images for the

objects desired to be possessed by the subject.
Stage IV: k- Stage 0: p-
Negation, respectively Destruction delusion Original participation (of the mother and
child as the basic model): Uroborus: Garden
Object Ego of Eden: Dual power: Sch: 0 -.

Object Ego Object Ego

Union: one and the same

Stage I: After separation from original dual

union:

Secondary Projection: Sch 0 or 0 -!

Total Projection: Ego is impotent:
object is all-powerful. But the Ego feels the
strength of the Object as long as relations are
good.

Object Ego

Stage V: Spiritual participation: Sch +/- +/-

 Object Higher Ego
Court
A higher court rules: art, religion, science,
humanity

The k Factor
(k = Katatonia in German; Catatonia in English)
(Achtnich: Understanding, Reason, Logic, Need for intellectual clarity, Restriction, Limitation,
Objectivity, Reality)
[See Susan Deris book, Szondi, Moser, and Webbs book, and web sites for more
information.]

The k+ Factor
(k = Catatonia)

The k plus is the introjective function of the ego. Szondi calls this the ego that has as
its aim to have the valuable objects and knowledge of this world. It is the material ego. This
is the part of the self that paradoxically wants to be emotionally detached from the objects of
the world but at the same time it wants to focus on the real world of valuable objects in its
concrete form. The k plus ego has an ideal image of itself as Narcissus did of his mirror
image in the pool. This image he loves, not the objects in the world beyond the isolated
glade. This is the basis for one calling the k plus person egotistical, independent, and
emotionally detached [objective, ruled by reason and the intellect]. As the diagram on the
circulation path of the ego shows, the object of interest is included in the k plus ego.
Therefore, whatever is of value in the external material worldwhether persons, possessions,
or knowledge as perceived by the k plus personbecomes a focus of interest and must be
had. The k plus person has suffered the painful separation from the mother, and thus the
environment, and now must maintain this separation in all relationships.
The artist in the stage of giving form to his ideas generated by the p function is ruled
by the k plus factor. The artist must be separated from the material formwhether music, a
painting, a sculpture, a poem, a novelin order to give it physical form. Form implies order
that is a primary concern to k plus. Susan Deri states that the k plus person loves Mozart and
Bach because this kind of music is highly structured. Logic guides the underlying emotions
in the music.

Occupations Satisfying the k Need

In the following, Achtnich tends to give strong weight to the k minus in his list of functions,
even though he presents this as a positive version of the k factor:

Functions of Factor V: Reason, Understanding, Thirst for Knowledge, and Sense of Reality
(k in pure Szondi):
[1] to have exact perception and observation, to be attentive, to be concentrated (taken
for granted to be in all occupations everywhere)
[2] to learn, to acquire knowledge (learners in schools and places of instruction [This is
mainly by introjection: k+.])
[3] to name [to make up nomenclatures], to designate, to mark, to note down, to write
(very many occupations everywhere, predominately in offices and workshops and in
graphic trades)
[4] to put in order, to divide, to register, to classify (store supervisor, government
worker, archivist, librarian, office worker in offices, archives, government, record
offices, stores, and libraries)
[5] to count, to calculate, to compute (designer, bookkeeper, proofreader, auditor,
cashier, salespersons and those in technical occupations of management and
administration, computer work, and statistician)
[6] to measure, to survey, to estimate (technical occupations and many handicraft
occupations everywhere and in particular in factories, building sites, and
laboratories)
[7] to copy, to counterfeit, to translate (occupations in offices, technical draughtsman,
blueprint men everywhere)
[8] to follow instructions, to follow the letter of the law, to observe the regulations, to
follow the instructions, to be reliable and trustworthy, to be accurate, to be diligent,
to persevere, to have endurance, to have regular work habits (most occupations
everywhere [Also see d-.]).
[9] to adapt accurately, to regulate, to adjust, to make something fit in (precision
technical occupations, for example, precision engineer, clock and watch industries,
optical work in factories)
[10] to put together, to erect (mechanic, engineer, fitter, technical occupations in
industries, administrators working with apparatus and machines)
[11] to test, to examine, to control, to secure, to compare (examiner, inspector,
diagnostician, book expert, data-processing expert, computer expert in places where
inspections are carried out)
[12] to correct, to improve (proofreader, teacher)
[13] to automate, to mechanize (technical professions in industries, management working
wit apparatus, machinery, and robotic machines)
[14] to construct (technical design occupations, designer, blueprint person, drawing
person in design places working with technical materials)
[15] to organize, to plan, to arrange, to manage, to administer, to systemize (planer,
dispatcher, manager, organizer, program planner, government and civil service
administrator or manager, religion institution manager, leader in industry,
government, and trade)
[16] to understand logical connections, to prove, to abstract (theoretical, logical
occupation activity, computer and data processing work everywhere, using logic,
theories, principles, systems, evidence, and proof)
[17] to criticize, to judge, to examine critically (critical observer, assessor, examiner,
advisor, expert, diagnostician everywhere)
[18] to explain, to inform, to instruct, to teach, to bring always something forward to
others (teacher, instructor everywhere and in school with people and learners)
[19] to decide, to set oneself a goal (very many occupations everywhere, using decision-
making capability)
[20] to require order, to discipline, to give orders, to give directions, to give assignments,
to order based on facts, to exercise competence, to exercise authority (occupation
positions in which instructions will be given and in which they will be followed as in
countries, industries, government, military, and trade for people, order, rules, laws
for countries to establish authority, compliance, and discipline)

The k- Factor
(k = Catatonia)
 Whereas the k plus person is independent emotionally of the objects, persons, and
interests in his or her environment, the k minus person is ruled by the environment and its
representatives. The model is the student who first enters school for the first time. Before his
wishes were dominant for him. Now, he must conform to the wishes of society as
represented by the school authorities, the rules, and the knowledge approved by his
particular society. Now, the person must repress his own desiressome not approved by his
or her own internal censorand not approved by the environment. The k minus person
takes on the approved values and postures of his environment. Laws, rules, conventional
rolesall these become his guides. Repression, denial, and opposition to his or her own
imagination rule. Adapting to the environment rules. As with the k plus, separation still
prevails as the k minus person keeps emotional distance from his or her own inner feelings
and the environment. Whatever prevails in the popular culture rules. The k plus person
follows his or her own desires that easily conflict with the popular culture. The k plus person
can be the artist, whereas the k minus person could only follow a fixed formula for a work of
any kind. The k minus person and creativity are not very compatible. Ultimately, Szondi has
k minus as one of the basic component of the common man who steps mechanically through
life, following the march music prescribed by society.

Achtnich: Interpretations for Negative k

Note: Although Achtnich is giving the negative of k in general, in reality, most of the
list of activities, or functions, are k minus. Therefore, the negative of k given here is a
negative of k minus, which is the factor for adaptation and repressing ones own desires for
the good of the society.

The denied factor the native, original the defense directed the working out of
factor need against the defense is
a reaction formation
(doing the reverse of
the original need)
-V [k-] be rational Adaptation, not adaptable
Reason, limitation, behavior,
Common Sense Compulsion learning disturbances

In the next table are the complete defense and the reversion for the V [k] need
opposite one another:

Minus Complete defense Reversion

Factor
-V [k-] There can be a turning away from all
technical and economics matters, all
accurate-pedantic, and similar forms
of uniform rules. That indicates a
certain compulsiveness that is
attached to each vocational activity
that is declined. Thus viewed, the
denial of V [reason, common sense]
cause an inhibition concerning
achievement, work disturbances, and
learning disturbances. Also the
denial of authority can show itself,
One supports control functions and
regulating. One is therefore ready to
work accurately and exactly when
this must be the case.
Opposition is not too pronounced
and is somewhat held back.
Anyway there is still a readiness to
adapt and to be incorporated into
the general system.
 for example, as opposition or
disorders by adolescents.
Between masculine and feminine V
testees there is an essential
difference: for feminine V testees the
denial of V is so to speak somewhat
normal and belongs at the same
time to their femininity. These,
still so much for the better, feel also
widely today to belong to a whole
succession of very typical and
masculine V-occupations.

The k0 Factor
(k = Catatonia)

In many ways, the k factor is what is normally considered the ego. Szondi uses the
name ego for all the functions of the ego, but, in reality, the k factors and p factors comprise
the self since the ego is called the bridge of opposites. The p factors are closely allied to the Id
and emotions; the k factors are representatives of controls over the outward expression of the
Ids desires and emotions. Szondi calls the k factors systole, or constrictive, and the p factors
diastole, or expansive.
In this context, the open, or zero, k signifies as one of its meanings: the absence of the
controlling factors of k. The controls of the ego are absent. Susan Deri, as usual, has
explained the full meaning of the open k. She states that the zero k signifies primary
narcissism: a state that harkens back to the state where the baby has no frustrations and thus
immediate satisfaction of all its desires. This is the Garden of Eden state before the fall. In
this condition, there is no object such as the mother since the presence of the mother only
becomes apparent when there is some frustration of the babys desires. The k factors only
come into being when there are frustration of desires and an object; in this case the mother is
recognized. The k plus functions by introjecting the image of the object in order to have the
object always available, even when the object is absent or is frustrating the baby. The k minus
works by repression to overcome frustrations.
Primary narcissism is self-love and concern only for himself or herself and occurs
when there is no awareness or recognition of an external object. Once an object has been
recognized because of frustration and introjected [k plus] as an object to be loved, then
secondary narcissism arises. This new object is a substitute for the original object. Jacques
Lacan, the psychoanalyst, calls this stage the mirror stage of development. This is the
situation where Narcissus is in love with the mirror image of himself in the pool.
Susan Deri then points out that subjects beyond the baby stage who give the open k
are infantile in character. Particularly when open k is with p minus, these individuals give
full reign to their needs and express them in their environment and toward their objects.
They do not expect to encounter frustrations in their self-expression. When they do meet
opposition, they react violently like a baby in rage. They are not to be reasoned with, Susan
Deri states, because they are not receptive rationally [no k plus] to any arguments that oppose
their wishes; rather they just want to express what is in them and not take anything from the
outside.
These are difficult people to deal with.
After the k factor appears as loaded, the open k also signifies that the functions of the
k factor are being lived out or satisfied in some positive or negative way.
 The p Factor
(p = paranoia)
(Achtnich: Spirit, Intuition, Creative)
[See Susan Deris book, Szondi, Moser, and Webbs book, and web sites for more
information.]

The p+ Factor
(p = paranoia)

Susan Deri places the p factor on the side of passion and the Id. The p plus person
lives out his or her needs in the environment and people. She envisions the p factor as the
gateway to self-expression in the outside world. Whereas the k factor wants to be separate
from the outside world emotionally, even while wishing to have materially this outside
world, the p factor person wishes to fuse with the outside world and its objects and to be
emotionally involved. The p factor wants to be and, thus, to live out its needs with others.
As Szondi has stated, the p person wants to be everything and to be complete. In
fact, the p plus person strives for completeness and perfection. Susan Deri points out that the
p plus person is idealistic. The p plus person is strong on words. The pathoanalysis view as
ably expressed by Jean Mlon in his book on Szondi puts the p plus factor at the highest stage
of development, for p plus is related to language itself and comes late in ones development.
Mlon calls the p plus person The Thinker. He likewise calls the k plus person The
Maker. Creativity comes from the p plus and p minus side and is brought into reality by the
k plus factor and submitted to criticism by the k minus factor.
There can be a grandiose side to the p plus person because when separating from the
mother, this person extracted power from the mother and became at once both: the self and
the mother as one. Ultimately, the p plus person can fuse with all of humanity and God. The
boundaries between opposites are overcome and all becomes one.

Occupations Satisfying the p Need

Achtnich in his listing of functions is drawing from what are classically both the p+
and the p- factors.

Functions of Factor G: Spirit, Intuition, Idea, Imagination (p in pure Szondi):

[1] to meditate, to philosophize, to imagine, to muse (philosopher, humanities or arts

scholar, mystic, founder of religion in college or school, using intelligence, insight,
ideas, intuition, meditation, illumination about the unknown, the unresearched, and
the unconscious, the world of religion, philosophy, metaphysics, mysticism, and the
occult [p minus is here too.])
[2] to see and to grasp intuitively connections and relationships, to combine, to solve
problems, to unriddle, to have psychological understanding (psychologist,
psychiatrist, careers advisor, history researcher, archeologist, who works
independent of place)
[3] to investigate, to interrogate, to spy out, to be a detective, to sound out, to ferret out,
to track down, to sniff out (jurist, criminologist, prosecuting attorney, judge,
detective, spy, auditor [These are mainly p minus: to spy out things])
[4] to inquire, to explore, to find out, to discover, to test, to detect and to seek the new
and the unknown (researcher, inventor, chemist, physicist, astronomer, research
physician, pharmacist, futurologist, inventor of machines, discoverer in a research
lab, expedition, and research areas in natural science and technical research, using the
 independence and freedom of the intellect and spirit as requirement for
improvement, finding completeness and even genius)
[5] to design, to be creative, to write poetry, to write music, to compose (artist, painter,
sculpturer, composer, writer, film director, fashion designer, couturire, creative
architect in art studio, using creative fantasy, imagination, images, representations,
and symbols)
[6] to immerse oneself into something, to empathize (conductor, musician, psychiatrist,
criminologist, simultaneous translator; psychiatrists and psychologists use intuition
and readiness for passive identification [Intuition is also p minus.])
[7] to spread ideas, to win influence, to act as a missionary, to convince, to successfully
launch new products (manager of salespersons, product manager, politician,
journalist, professor, missioner in commerce, trade, and university, using power of
persuasion and inflative thinking)
[8] to persuade, to talk a person into something, to convert, to suggest, to hypnotize, to
make promises, to awaken hopes (politician, advertising expert, genius about selling
things, and religious and social renovator in mass meetings and in bargaining and
negotiation, using power of persuasion, suggestion, fascination, emotion, and magic
[Magic is the k plus factor.])
[9] to believe, to have a presentment, to foresee, to anticipate (priest, theologian,
preacher, sectarian, but also a business expert in the church and revival places, using
belief, premonition, and expectation [This is really p minus as well. Also see the e
factor for the religious connection.])

The p- Factor
(p = paranoia)

The p minus factor appears first in the egos development and the p plus last. The
model for p minus is the babys being one and the same with the mother. Szondi calls this
participation as well as projection. All this union is on an unconscious level. Later, after the
baby has realized that there is a separation from the mother and the environment, he or she
longs for this state of being one with the other. Unlike the p plus person who has become
aware consciouslyparticularly through wordsof some unconscious needs, the p minus
person always is unconscious of how he or she is living out his or her needs in the outer
world of the environment and people. Whereas the p plus person has a grandiose view of
self, the p minus person feels inferior to the other and the environment unless there is a
positive fusion with another person, idea, or situation. Then the p minus feels the power of
the other person or idea. The p minus is constantly acting out his or her needs in the
surrounding world. The p minus person has great intuition since the insights and ideas are
coming from the outside or inside without any logical and conscious processing by this
persons intellect. Szondi puts participation [the p minus function] at the heart of his views of
the ego, really the self. Ultimately, the p minus can fuse, that is participate, with a higher
power. The negative side of the p minus and also of the p plus is the idea of persecution by
the other. This is a negative participation, for the p minus person is still in a union with the
other, only in a negative one.
Susan Deri points out at that painters and sculptors function with p minus since they
do not verbally give expression to their emotions as do writers [p plus people] who are more
conscious of what they are expressing.
Szondi indicates that the p minus is the most common of all the ego factors and is,
along with k minus, a chief component of the average man. Both p minus and k minus are
tuned to the culture and follow its lead.
 Achtnich: Interpretations for Negative p

The denied factor the native, original the defense directed the working out of
factor need against the defense is a
reaction formation

-G [p-] Spirit, fantasy, the spirit Intellectuality Inferiority feelings,

Intuition given free reign envy, blas attitude

In the next table are the complete defense and the reversion for the G [p] need
opposite one another:
Minus Complete defense Reversion
Factor
-G [p-] Denial of intellect [spirit]perhaps A problematic situation: inferiority
because one dashes along and feelingsyet one will however
therefore no talent is present. One nevertheless aspire to higher
will strive for no higher occupations positionsThe impulse to gather
and positions, perhaps out of with famous people in order to
resignation because of frequent grab something for oneself from this
failures. One has no creative fantasies celebrity.
and no intellectual [spiritual] or
scientific research interests. One
strives more after objective-practical
occupations in which all is prescribed.

The p0 Factor
(p = paranoia)

The p factors are allied with the Id in that the drives wish to be lived out in the
external world. However, this cannot freely occur unless the k is a zero too. In this case the
self-expression and fusing with the persons, ideas, and things of the external world can occur.
Susan Deri points out that, in all other cases, the k factors can cause the p factor to be
zero. For example, if k minus is functioning, then the desires to fuse with external objects and
express the selfs innermost desires will be repressed. Then, the values and wishes of society
will be the master. If the k plus is active, then the objects, knowledge, and valuable things of
the external world will be internalized or become a focus of interest and of having. In
Freudian terms, the libido that was directed toward objects in the external worldthat which
is involved with the p factorsbecomes directed internally and becomes ego libido, or
narcissistic libido as indicated by the k plus factor.
Although we are not generally discussing the pathological aspects of the different
factors, one must observe with Susan Deri that a k plus and a k minus ego with an open p
signify compulsive phenomena. Therefore, the energy and desires normally directed toward
the external world are absorbed by internal thought, rituals, and compulsions. An
intellectualization of the p factors emotions takes place.
 Sixteen Combinations for the Schizophrenic [Ego] Vector
[See Szondi, Moser, and Webb book for detailed analyses.]
[Extract from L. Szondi, Experimental Diagnostics of Drives, English translation by Gertrude
Aull]

S1 = -0 The mythical mystical contemplative ego

S2 = +- The autistic ego, the recalcitrant ego
S3 = -0 The compulsive ego
S4 = -+ The anti-inflative ego fighting obsessiveness
S5 = -- The drill ego
S6 = ++ The flooded ego, endangered ego
S7 = +0 The professional ego
S8 = +/- 0 The unfaithful masculine ego
S9 = +/- + The talented anxious ego
S10 = +/- - The ego in fight for freedom, escapists ego
S11 = 0+ The obsessive prophetic ego
S12 = 0 +/- The deserted, passive, feminine ego
S13 = + +/- The deserted ego introjecting the deserting object
S14 = - +/- The jealous self-aggressive ego
S15 = +/- +/- The integrative ego, anticipating catastrophe
S16 = 00 The disintegrating ego, ego-transformation

Szondi: Transformation of the Apparent Forms of Drive Factors:

Personality Vicissitudes Related to the Eight Drive Needs

Drive Vectors
Sch
 Schizophrenia/Ego Drive
Drive Factors k p
(Catatonia) (Paranoia)
(German spells this word with k)
Ego constriction, ego systole, adjustive (k-), Ego expansion, ego diastole, spiritual ego
materialistic ego (k+)
The function (k) refers to the auxiliary to
have, tends to delimit the Ego, and aims at The function (p) refers to the auxiliary
separating itself. It is the tendency to create being, with the register of the
norms, to capitalize, to transform. The (k) representations, the setting in scene of its
moves in the direction of a contraction in relations to the others. The (p) has the need
order to make the Ego free of any that works in the direction of the
dependence. unbounded expanding of the Ego.
Drives Related to: The Relationship to the Self
[Some of these ideas (which implies a certain relationship to totality)
come from
pathoanalysis.] For Szondi, the construction, not of the whole ego, but of its essential core, depends on
the whole of possible relationships between the self on the one hand and the different
modalities of being (p) and having (k) on the other hand. Schizophrenia is in a way a
model for psychosis. Only schizophrenia attacks the basis of the ego, or the self; the other
psychoses reach that ego or that self only by repercussion. They do not have a place in the
self if we express it this way.
The Ego vector (Sch) is the central authority; its theoretical elaboration is the keystone
of the Szondi architecture. It structures the other vectors: it has as a function to elaborate
the other impulses, to subject them to its own processes and to transform them. It is the
place of the defense mechanisms in regard to the instinctual dangers represented by the
other vectors but also in regard to those that are its own.
The reactions of the subject in this vector testify to a tendency to self-realization
(implement ones self, express ones self). But this the Ego takes position in relation to
itself, in such way that it constitutes, develops, and cultivates itself by the interaction with
the outside.
It is about the dimension of the subject. It is the relation with oneself which is posed;
the style of the person in her/his being in the world, and even her/his essential
expression.
The Sch vector is the dialectical one between the extension of the conscience of the
desires (p) and the restrictive function of the (k) tendency; between the need for increasing
the Ego (p) and that of its contracting (k).
Other Descriptions k+: tendency to autism, egotism, p+: tendency to ego-expansion, to seize
egocentricity, narcissism, and introjection. power, blame others (projection [p-])
k-: tendency to adjustment to the collective, tendency to spread humanitarian ideals,
repression spiritual values
Phylogenetic, none none
animalistic
Freudian: Early Original narcissism Original projection
childhood-pregenital First phase of introjection Dual union with the mother
Partial drives Buildup of the perceptive world
Psychic aristocratic exclusivity a. p+:
Characteristics eclectic [choose the best] choice of friends striving after greatness, boaster, swagger,
system-making, scheme-making, braggart
rigid formalism creative, a doer, a maker, constructor,
hard-headedness, sobriety, rationalism designer
 scrupulous pedantry, exactness, exemplary ability to go into another
without humor, taciturn, abruptness, (allo-psychic resonance)
phlegmatic, feelings cold, calm; to know all
supersensitive, mimosa-like sensitivity, psychic inflation [to be two opposites at
obstinacy; inflexible, uncompromising once: male and female, for example],
incapable of debating both sides obsessive
inhibited irrationalism
narrow-mindedness, bigoted, compulsive, fanaticism, enthusiasm
automaton, affected manner feelings of exultation
omnipotence feeling, autism, incapable of ambitendency
going into another (auto-psychic religious fanaticism
resonance): reserved To be all
immovable
To have all b. p-:
prophetic-like behavior
magic thinking
occultism, spiritualism,
sectarian
I. Pathologic, 1. Catatonia (katatonia in German) 1. Paranoia
extreme, and 2. Schizoid neurosis 2. Paranoid schizophrenia
negative 3. Compulsion neurosis 3. Demential senilis paranoides
manifestations: 4. Conversion hysteria 4. Querulousness (paranoid lawsuits)
(a) Drive disorders 5. Apathetic asthenic neurasthenia 5. Irritative neurasthenia
6. Paranoid megalomania
7. Paranoid homosexuality
8. Narcomania: morpheme, opium, cocaine
p-: Hebephrenia
(b) Delinquency Vagrancy, being a hobo, burglary, work shy, Political crimes expressive of grandiose
globe trotters, wanderers ideas
p-: card player, defrauder, swindler, social
subversion, revolutionary in society
(c) Suicide Self-starvation, being run over by a train Poison, gun
II. Physiologic, 1. Ego-constriction, self-sufficiency, ego Ego expansion, Ego diastole
normal socialized systole 1. Ego promotion
manifestations: 2. Adjustive ego (k-) 2. Need to bring unconscious impulses to
(1) Drive symptoms 3. Introjection, materialistic ego (k+) awareness
4. Object-ideal formation: I want to have 3. Expansion of the personality (power),
this. spiritual self
5. The rational censor 4. Projection
5. Ego-ideal formation: I want to be this.
(2) Maturity, Adult Ego Systole Ego diastole
Autism (a) Buildup of ego-ideal, spiritual
(a) Buildup of Possessed, object-ideal tendencies (p+)
Yes of will (k+) (b) Projection (p-)
(b) Negation, renunciation, denial,
repression, No of will (k-)
(3). (a) Socialization (a) k+: Introversion (a) p+: Extroversion
(b) Character egoism, egocentrism, narcissism, autism, passion, ardor, vehemence, worship
power-seeking, sobriety, temperance, impulse, adoration impulse, enthusiasm,
dryness, dullness, rule of understanding, reveling, obsession, partiality, pathos
love of form, love for logic, realism, feelings, rank feelings, position and status
 rationalism, monotony, order compulsion,
pedantry, stubbornness, detachment,
seclusion, ritualism, compulsive, knowledge
seeking, rationalism, pedantry
(b) k-: denial impulse, separation (or
isolation) impulse, inclination to inhibition
and repression; destruction impulse,
negativism
(4) Occupation, Sch professions Schizoform professional
Professional field: circle: k professions: catatonoid
Paroxysmal
occupation field
(a)Chief Drive Need Shut up oneself, ego contraction, narcissism,
egocentrism, autism, Have power
(b) Chief sense, Closing off of the sense organs
reality perception
(c) Professional Reproductive and abstract knowledges:
object logic, mathematics, physics, aesthetics,
geography, grammar, etc.
(d) (1) Professional (a) book
means (2) (b) writing, reading
professional activity
(e) Professional Enclosed spaces, classroom, lecture hall,
place or location library, ivory tower, cloister, nature
(f) occupation Soldier, bookkeeper, telegrapher, surveyor,
solutions: cartographer, watchman, accountant, post
Occupation, office clerk, farmer, night watchman, light
Professional field house watchman, book seller, printer,
Socialization in a security guard, administrator, writer,
profession, designer, pattern-drawer, machine
occupation draftsman, printer, forester,
III. Socially Positive 1. Adaptation to the collective
manifestations: 2. Repression of autism, egotism,
Drive Symptoms egocentricity, narcissism
Sublimation Thinking skill, philosophy metaphysics,
aesthetics, logic, mathematics, socialized
humanist, reasoning processes in general,
social humanist, philosophy based on
intellectual analysis
feelings, greed for power, self-
overestimation, greatness delusion, pride,
conceit, arrogance, rivalry impulse,
superiority complex, arrogance,
bigheadness, bumptiousness, bossiness
(b) p-: self under evaluation, delusions of
inferiority, self-tormenting, foresight,
mistrust, scape goat seeking, unforgetful,
quarrel seeking, oversensitive, resentment,
accusation impulse, quarrelling impulse
Sch professions Schizoform professions
circle: p profession: paranoid
Ego expansion, boasting, psychic Inflation,
creative, Being power
Smell, hearing
(a) pragmatic, analytic knowledge:
psychology, psychiatry, medicine,
chemistry
(b) music
(c) mystism, mythology, occultism
Invasion of ideas, creative, inspiration
Research institute, laboratory, chemical
factory, exotic regions or places.
The depth of the soul and the earth, insane
asylums, jails
Builder, organizer, druggist, pharmacist,
chemist, detective, lawyer, counterspy,
constructor
1. Need to engender humanitarian trends,
as collective kindness, generosity, justice,
restraint, self-denial
2. To create and promote humanitarian
ideas
3. Collective spiritualistic preoccupations
Sublimation: poetry, fiction, research,
creative and spiritual humanist
Occupations Teacher, professor for mathematics,
philosophy, national economics
Art critic
Engineer
Professor, chiefly linguist, or professor of
logic, mathematics, physics, philosophy,
social sciences
Aesthetics, art historian
(a.) inventor
(b) poet, writer, author
(c) psychologist, psychiatrist:
depth psychology, psychoanalysis
(d) mythologist, mystic, geology,
paleontology
(e) expeditions-leader, missionary
(f) musician,
(g) druggist, chemist [k o p -:
paranoid belief that one is being
poisoned]
Hebephrenia: graphologer, astrologer,
chirologer. (hebephrenia involves
repression of exhibition (hy-), projection
(p-) in the form of hypochondria
[exhibiting symptoms of the body], strong
aggression (s+) among other symptoms)
p-:
(h) judge, examining judge, public
prosecutor, lawyer
(i) detective, spy, counterspy
(j) nature-cure physician
[follower of homeopathy]
(k) specialist in metaphysics, theosophy,
Hinduism

The Contact Drive

IV. The Circular Vector, or Contact Vector that is more useful. This indicates the general
area of the subjects object relationships or, in other words, his or her contact with
reality.
(Circular comes from the Circular name for Depressives and Maniacs)
[See Susan Deris book Introduction to the Szondi Test: Theory and Practice for
greater details.]

d factor (pictures of depressed patients) reflecting the possessive anal type of object
relationship

m factor (pictures of manic patients) indicating the clinging oral type of object
relationship

The d Factor
(d = depression)
(Achtnich: Matter, Materiality)
(Achtnich: Factor d comprises the matter, the substance, the concrete, the comprehensible,
the practical, the earth and the ground, the natural, the relationship to animals, but also the
relationship to all having value, to possessions, gold, and property)
[See Susan Deris book, Szondi, Moser, and Webbs book, and web sites for more
information.]
 The d+ Factor
(d = depression)

Although the d in d+ or d- factor stands for depression, the d factor concerns anality
as described by Sigmund Freud and his followers. The child considers faces as an object that
is possessed and controlled. From a psychological viewpoint, therefore, materiality is related
to anality: the retention and disposal of faces, a material substance. Persons as objects are also
viewed psychologically as mental and material things. With objects of any kind, the issue of
getting and retaining of them comes into question. Does one possess an objectwhether
material or living beingor not? What happens if one loses a valued object? Then,
psychologically, one can become depressed, for depression is intimately involved with the
loss of the treasured object. Susan Deri and Sigmund Freud have covered the details of
anality and its connection to depression, or melancholia.
The pictures of depressives are shown in the Szondi test. Those who react positively
and identify with these depressives are d plus. Jean Mlon in his Course on Szondi (1998) [an
English translation by Arthur C. Johnston] clearly distinguishes the differences between the
reactions to a loss and depression over it for the d plus and d minus person. The d plus
person fully identifies with the pictures of depressives in the Szondi test and fully feels the
distress of grief much more than the d minus person. But d plus says to his or herself: O.K.,
Ive lost my beloved. This is terrible. But one cannot just do nothing. One must try to
overcome ones grief. How to do that? Get a substitute for the lost person. Typical of this is
the man who loses his wife and within months or a year has remarried. The d plus person
wants a concrete substitute for his loss. He or she faces reality. The motto is Do something.
Susan Deri gives three attributes of the d plus reaction to objects. One is that there is
a strong need for concrete objects and that they are highly valued. Two is that the d plus
persons focus is on external reality as the source for all material things. And three is that the
d plus person wishes actively to manipulate and to pursue objects. This last aspect, Deri
points out shows the link between s plus and d plus.
Sculpturers and painters typically give the d plus reaction since they deal with
physical materials. An interest in money, the classic symbol for faces, is of great interest to
the d plus person.
Like the epileptics, the d plus persons have an adhesive quality in their
attachments to objects and persons. Susan Deri states that this leads to a general
possessiveness, tendency for rivalry, and a persistence in reaching a goal that might even lead
to obstinacy. Overall, d plus and open d are the most frequent reactions of the general
population.
With a constant desire for the new and for change, the d plus person does not have
much loyalty to a material object or person. Jean Mlon sees as a result of these desires that
the d plus person has difficulty in attaching oneself really or for a long time. This also applies
to a task or a job. Jean Mlon sums up the d plus character: The subject has no real
attachment to the old object. He is always in the search for new objects, new feelings, open
for random encounters. The contact is infantile, inconsistent and incontinent. [This
quotation is an English translation by Leo Berlips of Jean Mlons work available on the
Szondi Forum web site under Contact Profiles.]
The d plus person is strongly influenced in his or her character by the expulsion stage
of anality as described by Sigmund Freud and his followers. This d plus person enjoys
anality, loves some disorder, irregularity, and differences.
 Occupations Satisfying the d Need

Following are the functions, or activities, given by Achtnich:

Functions of Factor M: Material, Substance, Possessions, the Concrete

(d in pure Szondi):

[1] to hold fast, to hold back, to seize, to grip, to lay hold, to take into possession, to
collect, to hoard, to preserve, to save, to acquire, to want to have and to possess, to act
as an archivist, to distribute and to receive, to have to do with money (archivist,
librarian, employee in a museum, numismatist [coin expert], stamp dealer, specialties
salesperson occupations, bank specialist in mortgages, cashier, teller in bank,
collector, card dealer, manages savings accounts in a bank, collection agency,
museum, archive, library, a second-hand bookshop [antiquarian], a remainder
department for books, lost-and-found department [d minus is here too.])
[2] to mine, to dig, to do any activity involving dirty or filthy things (farmer, gardener,
earthworks maker, miner, road and construction workers, geologist, civil engineer,
construction-of-building engineer, using hands [If something does involve using
ones hands, it does not make sense.])
[3] to clean, to polish, to wash off, to wash up, to rinse, to clean up dirt, to weed (sewage
worker, one cleaning up chemical spills and pollutions, sanitation facilities installer,
worker in removal of natural wastes, snow plow person, worker in cleaning
institutions and manufacturing of cleaning materials, remover of dirt, excrement,
filth, manure, rubbish, garbage)
[4] to smear, to oil, to grease, to put salve on something (garage-helper worker, physical
therapist, beautician, cosmetician in fabrication of oil and fats that are used in
machines, massage parlors, mud bath spas [See h plus also.])
[5] to mix, to stir up, to mix up (sausage, soap, starch, and paper makers, workers in
dairy, beer brewing, workers in canning food, chocolate, and pastry factories, work
involving thick, slow-moving material, mush, semi-solid material, and dough)
[6] to pave streets, to asphalt streets (plasterer, bricklayer, asphalt-layer, and worker on
concrete machines at construction sites, particularly civil engineering and road
construction sites)
[7] to print, to press, to form, to knead (sculpturer of stone, wood, and plastic, printer,
worker with print presses and pressure presses, pottery worker, pottery factories)
[8] to paste, to glue, to use as an enema, to size, to fuse, to melt, to dissolve, to break up
(different industry and commerce workers, bookbinding and cardboard box makers
in workshops and factories and in fabrication of glue)
[9] to house paint, to paint over, to plaster (plasterer, painter, auto-lacquerer at building
sites and workshops, using plaster, colors, lacquer, salt solution, and acid)
[10] to smell, to occupy oneself with disgusting or nauseous generating things (tanner,
dissection helper, skinner, animal lab technician, chemist in chemical factory,
perfume makers, working with decaying materials: It does not disturb when it
stinks.)
[11] to occupy oneself with animals (farmer, animal preserver, animal guardian, zoo
employee, pet shop owner, veterinarian, animal researcher, pig breeder, chicken
breeder, dog breeder)
[12] to tan skins, to work with leather (tanner, leatherware worker, and shoe maker)
[13] to milk, to curdle milk (dairy person, cheese maker, and milker)
[14] to fertilize, to use dung or manure (farmer, agriculture technologist)
[15] to ferment, to press grapes, to press out as with a wine press (maker of unfermented
fruit juice, wine producer, wine grower, employee in wine shop)
[16] to plant, to stick in the ground (gardener, farmer, and tree- nursery employee)
[17] to harvest, to gather, to collect (farmer)
[18] to accumulate, to store up, to pile up, to stack up (store worker, waste materials
dealer)
[19] to conserve, to restore (restorer of old artworks, preserving-food factory worker)
[20] to repair, to patch, to mend, to fix (people who have to do with restoring a condition
or an object)
[21] to search out, to seek, to hunt out, to ferret, to desire to avoid losses (the searching
man, recycling occupations, treasure hunter)
[22] to retain ones thoughts and ideas, to remember things, to hang on to the same ideas,
to ponder, to muse (psychotherapist in quiet places, focused on mental conflict and
depression, using remembrance [This is mostly d-.])
[23] to not separate oneself from the past, the situation, the work place; to seek the origin
or source of things, to want to return, to preserve tradition, to occupy oneself with the
past, history, the old, the valuable or precious things (classical philogist [linguist],
genealogist, ancestor research, archeology, earth research, geology, history research,
paleontologist [This is all d minus: looking to the past.])
[24] to concern oneself with the dead, the past, decay, decomposition, putrefaction, to
bury (undertaker, mortician, employee in funeral parlor, anatomy, medical examiner
medicine, employee in life insurance agency)
[25] to do monotonous, uniform, patience demanding unspiritual activities (worker in an
assembly plant that uses a conveyor belt and automation that produces lots of similar
products and other monotonous kind of work)

The d- Factor
(d = depression)

With the Szondi test, one can reject the pictures of those severely depressed, and they
are the d minus persons. Jean Mlon has equally described the reaction of the d minus
person to a loss that results in depression. When this person loses a loved one or object, the
immediate reaction is to hold on to the memory of the person and to ruminate on this beloved
person or object. One constantly looks to the past. The model for the loss is that of losing
ones mother. The d minus person never forgets the paradise of childhood. The d minus
person does not look for new objects. Jean Mlon states that the efforts of another person to
get close to the d minus person causes the d minus person to perceive this new person as an
intruder or even an enemy [Contact Profiles]. As a result of a loss, the d minus person
creeps into beda symbol of the womband, metaphorically, stays there is his or her
sorrow. He or she feels the grief, but at the same time denies the loss to avoid the pain of loss.
The d minus person cannot bear the loss of his or beloved and remains loyal to the memory of
this person and cannot bear to make a change to something new. In summary, the d minus
person sticks to the old, whereas the d plus person looks for the new.
Susan Deri points out that a chief characteristic of the d minus person is that he or she
has strong attachment to one particular person or one particular idea, whereas the d plus
person wishes to possess many objects.
Retention is the key word to describe the d minus person. These persons wish to
retain the old; thus, they are conservative. Unlike the d plus person who can easily replace a
valuable old object or person with something new, the d minus person has such strong
attachment to an object or person that has come into his or her circle that this loss is
experienced as extremely depressing. When this reaction is applied to a broader area, the d
minus persons become the guardians of the traditions and conventions of the established
order. Although the d minus person likes to retain money once it is in his or her possession,
this person does not aggressively pursue money as does the d plus person. When in love
with a person, an idea, or a project, the d minus person does not take into account reality:
they may love the person when there is no chance of this love being returned or continue
with a project even when it is impractical to pursue it. Retaining the love and feelings in a
passive way without aggressive pursuit of the person in a real way is sufficient for the d
minus person. This is the very opposite of the d plus person who aggressively pursues his or
her objects and goals only when there is a promise of concrete results in a material world.
Another area where retention applies is the d minus persons desire to remain in the same
place and to stay in the same job if at all possible. The d plus loves to change places, to be on
the go, and to change jobs. The d minus person likes to retain energy in a state of rest,
whereas the d plus person likes movement.
The d minus person is the one that ordinary people think about when they say anal.
Sigmund Freuds description of the anal character is that of the retention stage of anality.

Achtnich: Interpretations for Negative d

The denied factor the native, original the defense directed the working out of
factor need against the defense is
a reaction formation
-M [d-] Material, need for the Anality orderliness,
Substance, primitive material willful, obstinate,
Possessions, perfectionism
the Concrete

In the next table are the complete defense and the reversion for the p need
opposite one another:
Minus Complete defense Reversion
Factor
-M [d-] One turns away from all dirty or One seeks work (so long as coupled
stinking work. with V [k+]) in hygiene, cleaning; one
Without relationship to origin, likes being neat and being pedantic.
ground, possessions, etc. Inquisitive investigative behavior
Problematic in capability for bonding when coupled with factor G (p+).
relationships. Eventually also an indication of a
depressive mood.
 The following chart summarizes the main differences between the d- and d+ factors.

Thedandthed+Factors

Contrasts between d- factor and d+ factor

d- factor d+ factor
Oriented to the past Oriented to the future
The real and imaginary mother The substitute mother: the environment
Imagination, introversion Reality, extraversion
At rest Active
Conservatism Love for the new
Nostalgia for the past Hunt for the new
No change Desiring change
Stay put Get up and go
Mull over the past Look to the future
Focus on the self, narcissism Focus on possessing the other, a different kind of
narcissism
Loyalty to objects Disloyalty to objects
Strong attachment to one particular object Desire to possess many objects
Sentimental love for objects; thus keeps them Realistic evaluation of objects; thus, easily gets
rid of them
Preserves collectibles Always on the hunt for some new object for
collection
Remains in the same place and job if possible Likes to change jobs and places frequently
Likes rest Likes movement
Anal #2: retention [Freud] Anal #1: expulsion [Freud]
Freuds description of the Anal Character: love Freud: the character enjoys anality, love for some
for order, regularity, and sameness disorder, irregularity, and differences

The d0 Factor
(d = depression)

Again, Susan Deri is an excellent source for analysis of the different factors and their
combinations. As always, the open, or zero, reaction for a factor indicates that the need of the
person is finding some satisfaction whether in character, jobs, interests, relations, symptoms,
or other outlets of the need in its original form. In rare cases, the open reaction indicates lack
of power behind the need.
In the case of open d, this person does not feel any insecurity about his attachments,
so there is no anxious holding onto them or pursuit of them. There is an indifference or even
apathy toward attachments. Whatever is available is O.K. or whatever ones attachment
wants to do is also acceptable. Cest la vie or whatever happens, happens is the prevailing
attitude. If there are no great hindrances, this persons casualness to material and concrete
objects and persons can allow intellectual or artistic pursuits as Susan Deri states.
With the dropping out of tension in the anal-type relationships, either of d minus or d
plus, then relationships based on the oral component of the contact drive (factor m) comes to
the fore. For example, when open d combines with m plus factorthe constellation for a
normal and stable adult and very commonthen the person lives in a stable and trustful
relationship with the object supporting him. With this stable situation, this type of person can
does not have the worries of the anal types. Jean Mlon in his works gives excellent
overviews of all these matters.

The m Factor
(m = mania)
(Achtnich: Orality)
(Achtnich: All that that stands in connection with the mouth: (1) sucking, drinking, eating,
blowing [as with a musical instrument], kissing and (2) speaking and communication needs)
[See Susan Deris book, Szondi, Moser, and Webbs book, and web sites for more
information.]

The m+ Factor
(m = mania)

At the very beginning, Szondi connected the m factor to the Freudian concepts of
orality. Later, Szondi stressed the contact aspects of both the d and m factors based on the
writings of Imre Hermann, a Hungarian psychoanalyst, who wrote about to cling and to let
go [m factors] and to hold onto or to go on the search for new objects [d factors].
The m factor, as Susan Deri has pointed out, refers back to the very first period of
orality that is connected to the babys use of the mouth for sucking, contact, and pleasure. If
the baby is frustrated during this period either because of some neglect by the mother and the
situation or because of the babys strong oral needs, then when an adult the person will try to
make up for this early frustration by trying to gain pleasure through very direct oral means
such as drinking, eating, and being involved with food in some way. Martin Achtnich calls
this the Oral Nourishment [OR] factor. The adult also attaches himself or herself to persons
for pleasure in some oral manner like talking or conversing and thus communicating with
others in a social manner. In this situation, the m plus person clings to the other person or
persons in a passive and dependent way. Martin Achtnich calls this aspect of the m plus
factor the OR speaking and communication needs [In German the word Rede means
speaking; therefore OR].
The m plus person is optimistic about having his or her need for pleasure and
support from persons and the environment itself. The pictures of maniacs in the Szondi test
are all excited and smiling or laughing. This is a mild form of mania, called hypomania.
Susan Deri states that this mild form of mania truly represents the state of the person who is
expecting to gain pleasure and support from everyone and the environment itself.
Ultimately, m plus is the glue that holds society together. Most adults have m plus; that
means that there is some tension and desire for satisfaction of this social need that motivates
in a positive way people to be together. That is why this m area is also called the contact
drive.
Reality eventually sets in for the m plus person and the other person or environment
does not satisfy fully the oral needs. The ultimate fear for m plus is to lose the emotional
pleasure and support given by the other person or environment. (The d plus fears the actual
physical loss of the other person.) The m plus person does not have great tolerance for
frustration. Despite this, the m plus person is always hopeful that pleasure and support from
those to which he or she is clinging will be forthcoming. The m plus person in his or her mild
version of mania is restless and desires many objects as sources of pleasure and support.
What ordinarily we think of mania is the exaggerated state of hyper- not hypo- mania that
has entered into the pathological.
Orality, the m plus need, is, in many ways, the foundation of artistic endeavors and,
again, shows how beneficial this factor can be when used constructively.
 Occupations Satisfying the m Need

Achtnich organizes the orality factor into two groups: (1) OR for speaking and
communications [speech and language] and ON for nourishment needs.

Factor OR: Speaking and Communication Needs, Speech, Language

[1] to joke, to chatter, to tell, to narrate (master of ceremonies, cabaret master of

ceremonies, fantastic or exaggerated story telling, using wit, humor, and narration)
[2] to talk, to speak, to telephone, to report, to lecture, to recite (reporter, politician, radio
or TV speaker, telephone speaker, concierge, speech teacher)
[3] to greet, to welcome, to make contact (being in a partnership type of occupation,
trade, salesperson, catering trade)
[4] to discuss, to negotiate, to sell (salesperson, trader or negotiator, stockbroker,
principal in a school, headmaster or headmistress, senior consultant, using
salespersons talk)
[5] to interpret, to translate (interpreter of foreign language, translator at congresses and
conferences, focused on establishing understanding between partners)
[6] to sing, to play a wind instrument [one that one must blow into], to sound (singer,
wind instrumentalist)
[7] to communicate, to give information, to transmit, to make known, to orient, to inform
(giver of information, advisor, consultant, teacher, journalist, and a communicator for
the questioner, the student, the customer)
[8] to speak artistically, to recite, to disclaim (actor, reciter, dramatist, and writer, using
speech and language and articulation)

Factor ON: Nourishment Needs

[1] to eat, to drink, to eat sweets (nourishment materials and occupations concerned with
drinks such as kitchens and hotels)
[2] to test with taste buds, to sample food (wine tester, coffee tester, fruit tea or infusion
salesperson)
[3] to nourish, to feed, to give food and drink (restaurant worker, service employee,
barkeeper, bar server [Also see h+: to server.])
[4] to prepare food, to cook (cook, landlord, hotel owner and workers)
[5] to produce food or foot stuffs (baker, pastry cook, maker of food and worker in food
factory)
[6] to sell food or food stuffs (food salespersons, railroad steward or stewardess [Also see
h+: to server.])

The m- Factor
(m = mania)

We enter a different world from the m plus when we encounter m minus. Whereas,
the m plus tries to make up for his unhappy experiences and lack of pleasure and support, in
his or her mind at least, by optimistically looking for happiness in his or her relations to
persons and the environment, the m minus, who had the same frustrations in the early oral
period as the m plus, denies that this occurred and refuses to be dependent on others. This is
the peak of independence but also a source of feelings of unhappiness no matter how well
things appear to go. Susan Deri discuses this thoroughly.
The m minus can go in a positive or destructive direction. On the positive side, the m
minus person can be socially positive by being a supporter of someone in a bad situation as a
mother would be for a child in bad circumstances. However, the minus person expects that
the one helped will return love in return. This does not always happen. And the m minus
person has a high tolerance for frustration and basically a pessimistic outlook toward
obtaining pleasure and love from others and the environment. On the negative side, m minus
can appear in thosesuch as juvenile delinquents and other criminals and anti-social people
who experienced frustration in the early oral period and now take out their revenge
through destructive ways on people and the environment. These m minus persons have
given up on any hope of getting oral pleasures and support from people around them.

Achtnich: Interpretations for Negative m

The denied factor the native, original the defense directed the working out of
factor need against the defense is
a reaction formation
-O [m-]Orality language, contact readiness, inhibition in
-OR [m-] speaking, pleasure in speaking speaking,
Speaking, contact needs contact inhibition
communication
-ON [m-] nourishment nourishment needs hater-of-life attitude,
Nourishment impulse emaciation
[anorexia],
disturbances in
digestive track

In the next table are the complete defense and the reversion for the m need opposite
one another:

Minus Complete defense Reversion

Factor
-O [m-] Absent in the testee are friendliness
and the wish for social contact. One
will not work under people and
seeks occupations in which one
works all alone. When ON [m+] is
denied strongly, there exists
eventually the danger in the
direction of alcoholism similar to the
one who avoids such occupations in
The picture with o as a secondary
factor always shows the needs for
speaking and contact with others.
Thus these directions are sought and
affirmed. Here the difference
between a picture with O [primary
factor] and o [secondary factor] can
be clarified.
[Note: Every picture in the
 which these dangers are hidden. Achtnichs Occupation test has a
primary and a secondary factor.]

The m0 Factor
(m = mania)

Whenever there is a zero or no more than one plus or one minusan open reaction
for a factor that means that the need of the factor is being satisfied in some manner whether in
its original native formin this case oralityor in an occupation, a choice of some kind, a
symptom, an interest, and other ways both positive and negative.
Susan Deri emphasizes that there is an exaggeration here. Unlike m plus that wishes
to cling and to derive pleasure from one person or activity, the open m goes to the extreme of
having as many persons and activities as possible. Theres a frenetic quality of rushing from
one person to another. On the outside, this open m person is charming, a bon vivant, a party-
type person, a seeker after pleasures to fill up every moment. Relationships are shallow.
Gamblers would be the ones who challenge fate and cant stop from playing.
Susan Deri notes that the open m can be found in writers, public speakers, and
actors. But one cannot determine by the open m exactly how the oral behavior will manifest
itself.
The aggressiveness of this open m person in pursuit of pleasure and support derives
from the second oral stage called the sadistic-oral or cannibalistic stage.

Susan Deri has an excellent summary chart on the differences between the d factor
and the m factor relationships and attribute [Introduction to the Szondi Test: Theory and
Practice, 1949, p. 135]:

(m) factor ORALITY (d) factor ANALITY

Objects wanted for the pleasure to be Objects wanted for the sake of owning
derived from them; for the support they them; to accumulate them and to
can give, for clinging to them.
control them.

Essentially passive relation to the object. Active manipulative relation to the

Related to the h factorial object object. Related to the s factorial object
relationship. relationship.

Impatience and restlessness in regard to Perseverance and persistence in regard

reaching a goal object. to reaching a goal.

Ability to give love and emotional Tendency to overwhelm love object

support to the love object (through with material gifts.
identification with the giving mother and
through identification with the person
who needs love and support).
More possibility for sublimation without
resorting to the defense mechanism of
reaction formation (no exaggerated.
anticathexis needed in sublimating oral
impulses).
More need for resorting to reac-
tion-formation in order to overcome
the originally aggressive attitude
toward objects; hence, the compulsive
quality of "anal" type of love.

Sixteen Combinations for the Contact Vector

[See Szondi, Moser, and Webb book for detailed analyses.]
[Extract from L. Szondi, Experimental Diagnostics of Drives, English translation by Gertrude
Aull]

C1 = 00 Childish, pleasure-seeking relationship to the world; curiosity

C2 = 0+ Mature relationship to the world; fear of loss of the object
C3 = 0- Unhappy ties to the world; hypomanic reaction
C4 = 0 +/- Unhappy state of living in a dual-union relationship
C5 = -0 Conservatism, loyalty, anal character
C6 = -+ Incestuous love and hatred, extreme adherence to an idea
C7 = - - Unrealistic adherence to a lost object
C8 = - +/- Incestuous adherence to the lost object
C9 = +0 Unfaithful relationship
C10 = ++ Simultaneous ties to two objects; bi-objectivity
C11 = + +/- Search for a new object after loss of the old; depression
C12 = +- Search for a new object after separation from the old
C13 = +/- 0 Problematic, phobic tie
C14 = +/- + Bi-objectivity, search for a new object in spite of adherence to
the old
C15 = +/- - Unrealistic adherence to the old object, simultaneous search
for a new object
C16 = +/- +/- Contact dilemmas, simultaneous loyalty and disloyalty

Szondi: Transformation of the Apparent Forms of Drive Factors:

Personality Vicissitudes Related to the Eight Drive Needs

Drive Vectors
C
Contact (or Circular) Drive
Drive Factors d m
(Depression) (Mania)
Need to appropriate, to search (Anal) Need to cling dependently
The factor (d) poses the question of (Oral)
preserving what one possesses (d-) or to The factor (m) shows how the subject reacts
move towards another object (d). to the need to cling to the objects, to
withdraw pleasure and support from it.
Drives Related to:
[Lots of these ideas The Relationship to the Other
are from in so far as it passes through the mediation of the lost object
pathoanalysis.]
Szondi thinks that all psyche, all human subjectivity, is formed starting from a more
 or less mythical or imaginary phase where the subject because of his initial imbecility and
total ignorance finds himself at one with the person who feeds him; at this stage this
person can only be another being for us only. This is a Dual-Union. [k0 p-] When one has
separated from the ancient dual partner, one will meet this partner as an object. But there
is always the longing for the mythical union. Separation from the dual union is always
felt as a loss and a rejection. Object love will always be marked by uncertainty and
precariousness because he has to recognize the limits to this love, whereas there were no
limits in the dual union love.
The contact (or Circular) vector reflects the way in which a subject stands in the world,
how he maintains himself, without being carried away by the sensations that he
experiences. It is the insertion of the individual into his surroundings. It is the relation
with the others that is at stake. It indicates the relation of the individual to the world. It
concerns the quality of the relation: oral (m) or anal (d).
It is the vector of environment, sensations (mood) in connection with the world
around.
Other Descriptions d+: tendency to acquisition to the m+: tendency to cling to the old object
disadvantage of others, search for new (thing, person); orality, hedonism.
objects, disloyalty m-: tendency to separate, to loneliness
d-: tendency to self-denial for the sake of all
people, loyalty, anality (anal erotic,
retention).
Phylogenetic, To go on a search after nourishing love Clinging to the mother, onto the tree, etc.
animalistic objects
Freudian: Early Anality Orality
childhood-pregenital Anal erotic Oral erotic
Partial drives
Psychic anxious, resentment, ill feeling, constant carefree cheerfulness, constant optimism,
Characteristics pessimism good-heartedness, warm humanity
anxious clinging to anyone fraternization, small town worldliness,
complaining with varied defenses of enjoyment
situation many activities, varied events
disdain for life close to life, enjoyment of life
thinking of death hedonism
unfit or incapable in action, decision, constantly seeking after new sources of
resolutions and work enjoyment
inhibited, holding back energy, great work and life capability
scrupulousness, formal, fussy, desire for undertakings
complicatedness, self-disparagement, good reality sense, realism, materialism
readiness to weep, sentimentality ease in acquiring money
holding onto old objects frivolity, carelessness, squandering money,
constant deploring about objects and making debts, bearing of lifes problems
valuables, which have been lost in reality with lightness and good humor
or in pathological fantasy exaggerated freeness and not being bound
endless complaining in object relationships: ease, facility,
unproductive, incapable to discuss things, weakness
renouncing oneself and the world inconsistency, inconsiderate, instinctuality,
almost stiff, nearly anxious lamentations irrationalism, unsteadiness
narrow-mindedness good nature, sense of humor, facetiousness,
rising conscientious, self-critic, self- readiness to laugh
accusation, self-torment talkativeness, gift for speaking
ability to convince, readiness to debate,
 Anality: constipation, not eating, not hastiness, quick anger with quick fading
speaking, saving, economical, greed, versatility
constant readiness to criticize unrest
broad-mindedness
constantly making plans, riches to fall into,
freedom from remorse
lack of self-criticism
irresponsibility
being religious without holding to form or
rituals
Orality: eating, drinking, sucking on
candies, smoking, readiness to use tongue,
kissing, eventually oral sexuality
I. Pathologic, 1. Depression 1. Mania,
extreme, and 2. Melancholia 2. Hypomania, simply being happy,
negative 3. Agitated depressive neurasthenia euphoria
manifestations: 4. unsteadiness 3. Agitated hypomanic neurasthenia
(a) Drive disorders 5. Fetishism 4. Alcoholism, addiction
6. simple out-of-humor neuroses, 5. Nymphomania, satyriasis
depressive cycloid 6. Predisposition to diabetes, bladder
7. Disposition to diabetes illnesses, formation of stones (gall or hard
A simple mixed form: catatonia form of stones, etc)
melancholia A frequent form of illness is inflative
Manic-depressive psychoses: changing paranoid mania
manic and depressive conditions
Mixed form of paranoid quarrelling
depressions, mostly with senile ill-feeling
(resentment), suspicion, anxiety about
going to ruin
(b) Delinquency Violations against property, theft (mostly Swindling, fraud, bigamy, dipsomania,
within the family as compensation for the imposter
lost love), instability
(c) Suicide Sedatives (drugs) Alcohol poisoning
II. Physiologic, 1. Searching for objects (d+) 1. Clinging to a specific person, family,
normal socialized 2. Acquisitiveness religion, social group, race, nation
manifestations: 3. Appropriateness 2. Oral tendencies
(1) Drive symptoms 4. Rivalry 3. Close adherence to acquired objects
5. Anal tendencies
(2) Maturity, Adult (a) Acquisition impulse, changing impulse a) making safe impulse for the acquired
(d+) object: orality; impulse, thus, to accept and
(b) impulse to cling, perservence tendency, to be confirmed as one is (m+)
collecting need (d-) (b) separation impulse (m-)
(3). (a) Socialization (a) d+: acquisition sense, eternal seeking, (a) m+: clinging impulse, security impulse,
(b) Character inquisitive, curious, innovation seeking, enjoyment pleasure, pleasure impulse,
untrue, disloyal, pleasure in squandering, serenity, cheerfulness, good nature,
wasting, liberality, generosity, immoderate, capriciousness, anxiety about losing the
extravagant, unsteadiness object
(b) d-: true, loyal, faithfulness, pleasure in (b) m-: loneliness, separation or isolated,
saving and collecting, covetousness, avarice, deserted, neglected, hasty, snatching,
stinginess, remuneration joy, conservatism, unreal binding to the world, inclination to
pleasure in criticizing, melancholy, addiction, unsteadiness, grab everything
 perseverance impulse and pleasure since one sees no value in
anything (mania)

(4) Occupation, Contact professions, Depression professions Contact professions, Mania professions
Professional field: (Anal) (Oral)
Paroxysmal
occupation field
(a)Chief Drive Need Object and value or worth seeking Object need. Clinging and seeking objects
Hanging on to the collected objects and respectively throwing them away.

(b) Chief sense, Smell taste

reality perception
(c) Professional (a) real worth: gold, money, art treasures Everything that can be the source of oral
object (b) literature and art works pleasure
(c) entrails, bowels

(d) (1) Professional To collect, to gather one after the other, to (a) speech organ: movement of the mouth
means (2) dress, to attire, to ornament, to preserve and tongue
professional activity (b) color mixing , costs (expenses, charges)
(e) Professional (a) bank, theatre office, antique dealing, Public house , inn, restaurant, bar
place or location antique shop, museum
(b) water closet, bathroom, sewer
(f) occupation painter, house-painter Cook,
solutions: banker, pawn-broker, lender employee innkeeper, coffee house employee, bar
Occupation, refuge collector, garbage collector, street tender mixer, wine taster
Professional field sweeper, toilet cleaner, bowels and leather Music: horn instruments, jazz
Socialization in a worker Film, music school, concert office
profession, chemist purifier supervisor
occupation journalist Waiter, bartender, cook,
collectors: stamp collector, antique collector, jazz band, musician, buyer,
magazines, market, pawnshop dealer linguist, speech teacher, linguist, salesman
auctioneer, dry-cleaner, painter, landlord
exterminator, furrier Broker, salesman, purchaser
III. Socially Positive 1. Self-denial for the sake of the common Separation from a specific person, family,
manifestations: good religion, social group, race, or nation for
Drive Symptoms 2. Loyalty the sake of the common good

Sublimation National economy, economic humanist Sublimation: Speech arts and Art in general
Occupations as physician: bowels specialist, Art dealer, Politician, orator, artist, speech teacher,
critic dentist, dental surgeon
antique dealer, museum employee, art Money-making: banker, stockbroker,
collector director of firms and businesses,
painter of pictures entrepreneur
Representative in parliament, union
representative, delegate
Artistic activities: singer, organizer of art
exhibits, art dealer, leader of a concert
bureau, director of a music school, lyric
poet, etc.
 Resources

English Works:
Deri, Susan, Introduction to the Szondi Test: Theory and Practice, 1949 [Deri was a
Szondi worker and has excellent interpretations of his test.]
Hughes, Albert E., Your Fate in Your Handwriting: How to analyze yourself, 1978
[This books gives graphological and descriptions of the eight factors of Szondi.]
Hughes, Richard A., Cains Lament: A Christian Moral Psychology, 2001 [Has some
good material on Szondis thinking but not as good as the Ancestor book.]
, Return of the Ancestor, 1992 [This gives a good survey of Szondis thinking
without being too technical. A scholarly approach.]
, The Radiant Shock of Death, 1995 [This explores the connection between the
paroxysmal experience and paranoia to death, using the ideas of Szondi. Excellent
exploration and very readable.]
Johnston, Arthur C., Szondi Test: Its Interpretation and Graphological Indicators,
[self-published], 2006
, Talk on Shame and Shamelessness, [This is a talk I gave several years ago. It is an
exposition of the Szondi hy+ (shamelessness) and hy- (shame) factors. Lon Wurmser, whom
I used a lot, was a follower of Szondi and wrote about criminals and their traits shown by the
Szondi test.]
Mlon, Jean, Course on Szondi, 1998 (translated from French to English by Arthur C.
Johnston, 2005) [This is an excellent book on Szondis ideas in depth. Mlon represents
pathoanalysis, a combination of psychoanalysis and Szondis ideas without any use of his
gene theory. Available on The Szondi Forum: http://www.szondiforum.org.]
Schneider, Carl D., Shame, Exposure, and Privacy, 1977 [Another book on hy+ and
hy-.]
Sonnemann, Ulrich , Handwriting Analysis As a Psychodiagnostic Tool, 1964 [The
best interpretations of Ludwig Klages work in English. This is an excellent book in every
way except its readability.]
Szondi, Leopold, Experimental Diagnostics of Drives, translated by Gertrude Aull,
1952 [Some charts used in the talk came from this translated work.]
Szondi, Lipot; Moser, Ulrich; Webb, Marvin W., The Szondi Test in Diagnosis,
Prognosis and Treatment, 1959 [A technical discussion of the Szondi test.]
 Tulloch, Alex, Szondis Theory of Personality in Handwriting, 1994 [ISBN 0913700 1]
[This book literally translated sections from the two French books Graphologie et Test de
Szondi. Well-done overall.]
Wurmser, Lon, The Mask of Shame, 1981 [This explores the hy+ and hy- factors
without mentioning them.]

Foreign Works:
Achtnich, Martin, Der Berufsbilder-Test [Occupations Pictures-Test], 1979, Hans
Huber [Excellent for real insights into Szondis ideas as applied to occupations. Translations
into English by Arthur C. Johnston are included in this present work.]
Beeli, Armin, Psychotherapie-Prognose mit Hilfe der Experimentellen
Triebdiagnostik, 1965, Verlag Hans Huber
Grmiger, Ines, Lehrbuch der Schicksalspskychologischen: Graphologie, 2001 [self-
published] [This book applies Szondis ideas to the whole (Gestalt) and the particulars of
handwriting.]
Lefebure, Fanchette, Gille-Maisani, Jean-Charles, Graphologie et Test de Szondi:
Tomb 1: le Moi, 3rd ed., 1990; Tomb 2: dynamique des pulsions, 2nd ed., 1990]; [The authors
gave the Szondi test to hundreds of people and obtained writing samples at the same time to
find the graphological indicators of the Szondi factors.]
Schneider, E., Der Szondi-Versuch, 1952, Verlag Hans Huber
Szondi, Leopold, Die Triebentmischten, 1980, Verlag Hans Huber
, Freiheit und Zwang im Schicksal des Einzelnen, 2nd ed., 1977, Verlag Hans Huber
, Kain Gestalten des Bosen, 1969, Verlag Hans Huber
, Lehrbuch der Experimentellen Triebdiagnostik, Band I, 1972, Verlag Hans Huber
[Up-to-date information from this book was translated and given in the charts on the four
vectors.]
, Moses Antwort auf Kain, 1973, Verlag Hans Huber
, Schicksalsanalyse: Wahl in Lieb, Freudschaft, Beruf, Krankheit und Tod, 3rd ed.,
1965, Schwabe & Co. [Lots of information given in the charts on the four vectors were
translated by Arthur C. Johnston from this book.]
, Schicksalsanalytische Therapie, 1963, Verlag Hans Huber
, Szondi-Test: Experimentelle Triebdiagnostik, Test Band, Verlag Hans Huber, 1981
, Triebpathologie: Elemente der Exakten Triebpsychologie und Triebpsychiatrie,
1952, Verlag Hans Huber

World Wide Web Addresses:

British Academy of Graphology: http://www.graphology.co.uk/scriptor/Theory.htm/
[This is the page for Alex Tullochs book. Also from here you can go to Scriptor Publishers
books for an interesting list of books on graphology.]
Szondi Institute: http://www.szondi.ch/ [This is the official site for the Szondi
Institute.]
Web site for all kinds of articles and information on Szondi and his test:
http://www.szondiforum.org. This site is edited by Leo Berlips, a long-time supporter of
Szondis and his followers ideas and works. [Click on Articles (Foreign Languages and
English) for abundant information on Szondi and his test. Particularly get Ego Vector 2, 3, 4.
This site is now putting up Susan Deris work and English translations of important French
and German authors in English. This is the place to go on the Web.
http:// home.tiscali.be/vuc-roma is the web site of pathoanalysis and has many
valuable articles and information on Szondi and psychoanalysis. This site is opening new
possibilities for Szondis ideas with the exclusion of those on the gene theory.